 |
An International Meeting of American Accounting
Association
|
Smith, Marx or Foucault in Understanding the Early British Industrial Revolution? A Re-examination of Management and Accounting for Capital and Labour at the Carron Company |
Robert A. Bryer
University of Warwick
Richard K. Fleischman
John Carroll University
Richard H. Macve
London School of Economics
Abstract: Archival historical work has been re-evaluating the role of accounting and early management practice in the British Industrial Revolution. Interpretations have been offered both by "Neoclassical" and "Foucauldian" historians. Recently Bryer has argued for a "Marxist" accounting and management history in which the accounts played a critical role in controlling production for profit, in technological innovation, and in protecting or undermining the social cohesion of its capital and its capitalist zeal. In this first attempt of representatives from the three dominant paradigms of accounting historiography to visit jointly a major archive, we re-examine the primary archival evidence about managerial practices in the Carron Company between 1760 and 1850. Our intent is to gauge the different ways in which the "Neoclassical," "Foucauldian," and "Marxist" frameworks serve to illuminate developments that took place at Carron and their significance to understanding the role of the accounting.