Company Financial Statements as Source Material for Business Historians

Business History

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 1980, Pages 203-235

  Marriner, Sheila ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 5244299067     PISSN: 00076791     EISSN: 17437938     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00076798000000027     Document Type: Article

References (76)

1. F.R.M. de Paula, ‘The Interpretation of Accounts’ The Accountant, 26 June 1926, 900.
2. 31 Geo. 3, c. 55, s,38.
3. 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 97, s. 17.
4. Emphasis supplied. 4 Geo. 3, c. 37, s. 11, 12.
5. Emphasis supplied. 50 Geo. 3, L & P, c. 163, s. 18.
6. H. Parkinson, ‘Management and the Shareholder’, The Accountant, 26 May 1934, 742. For a fuller consideration of the aims of financial statements see H. Rose, Disclosure in Company Accounts (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1965).
7. J. Bentham, ‘On Public Account Keeping’, Official Aptitude Maximised: Expense Minimised (1830) 3, 10–1.
8. F.J.B. Gardner, ‘The Balance Sheet as Literature’, The Accountant, 2 June 1934, 790–1.
9. 8 & 9 Vict., c. 16, s. 116.
10. Emphasis supplied. 19 & 20 Vict., c. 47, Table B, 70. See Appendix.
11. 11 & 12 Geo. 6, c. 38, s. 156.
12. For example, 19 & 20 Vict., c. 47, Table B, 64.
13. Emphasis supplied. Law Reports, 1889, 41 Ch.D. and Appeal, 21.
14. ‘Company Law Amendment’, Evidence given before the Departmental Committee on the Amendment of the Companies Acts 1908–1917, by Mr. Sidney Pears on behalf of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Also reproduced in The Accountant, 19 Sept. 1925. 440.
15. Hemming and Miller, 2 1864, 528–39.
16. Ibid. 535–6.
17. Law Reports (hereafter LR), 1882, 21 Ch.D. 519–37.
18. LR, 1911, 1 Ch.D. 92–108.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid. Emphasis supplied.
21. LR, 1869 4 CA 475–96.
22. LR, 1870 6 CA 104–24.
23. LR, 1889 41 Ch.D. 1–28.
24. Ibid.
25. LR, 1892 2 Ch.D. 124–33.
26. LR, 1894 2 Ch.D. 239–70.
27. LR, 1896 1 Ch.D. 331–50.
28. LR, 1899 2 Ch.D. 629–78.
29. LR, 1901 AC 477–94.
30. LR, 1894 2 Ch.D. 266.
31. LR, 1918 1 Ch.D. 266–99.
32. LR, 1892 2 Ch.D. 198–211.
33. LR, 1904 2 Ch.D. 208–19.
34. A. Cathles, ‘Accounts: Straightforward and Misleading’, The Accountant, 3 July 1926, 13–4.
35. Ibid.
36. I am indebted to Mr. A.D.N. Jones of Turner and Newall Ltd. for copies of the firm's financial statements.
37. F.M. Hawnt, ‘Balance Sheets of Limited Companies’, The Accountant, 6 March 1926, 362. For a general discussion of various possible meanings of the term ‘value’ see S.A. Smith, ‘Valuation of the Assets of Public Companies’, The Accountant, 17 Oct. 1931, 517–25.
38. O. Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations 1963 (75).
39. R. de Roover, ‘A Florentine Firm of Cloth Manufacturers’, Speculum, 14 no. 1 (1941) 25.
40. S. Pollard, The Genesis of Modern Management (1965) 244.
41. H. Pollins, ‘Railway Auditing—A Report of 1867’, Accounting Research, 8 (1957) 14–22.
42. N.K. Hill, ‘Accountancy Developments in a Public Utility Company in the Nineteenth Century’, Accounting Research, 6 (1955) 382–90. For a discussion of depreciation in the nineteenth century see R.P. Brief, ‘Nineteenth Century Accounting Error’, Journal of Accounting Research, 3 (1965) 12–31.
43. 11 & 12 Geo. 6, c. 38, 8th Schedule, s. 14(2).
44. Report of the Company Law Committee (the Jenkins Committee), Cmnd. 1749 (1962), para. 349.
45. Law Journal Reports, 75 (1906) Chancery Division, 627–33.
46. Ibid.
47. The Accountant, 19 Sept. 1925, 440.
48. The King v. Kylsant (Lord) 1931 1 K.B. 442, 23 Cr.App.Rep. 83. For more details of this case see P.N. Davies and A.M. Bourn, ‘Lord Kylsant and the Royal Mail’, Business History, 14 no. 2 (1972) 103–23; Sir Patrick Hastings, Cases in Court (1949) 165–75.
49. 19 & 20 Geo. 5, c. 23. See appendix.
50. Sir Josiah Stamp, ‘Industrial Profits in the Past Twenty Years-A new Index Number’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 95 Pt. 4 (1932) 660.
51. T. Greenwood, ‘Half-Truths in Audited Accounts’, The Accountant, 16 April 1932,523.
52. Report of the Committee on Company Law Amendment (the Cohen Committee), Cmd. 6659 (1945), para. 101.
53. 11 & 12 Geo. 6, c. 38. See appendix.
54. Ibid.
55. H. Parkinson, ‘Management and the Shareholder’, The Accountant, 26 May 1934, 743.
56. Annual Report of the Court of Directors of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company for the year 1928.
57. See note 48.
58. 11 & 12 Geo. 6, c. 38. See appendix.
59. N.K. Hill, ‘Accountancy Developments in a Public Utility Company in the Nineteenth Century’, Accounting Research, 6 (1955) 382–90.
60. Ibid.
61. Emphasis supplied. Copy of Charter, with Report of the Directors to the first ordinary meeting of the proprietors, 11 June 1853. I am indebted to Dr. P.N. Davies for copies of both the Charter and financial statements.
62. F.R.M. de Paula, ‘The Interpretation of Acwunts’, The Accountant, 26 June 1926,900.
63. ‘Liabilities of Auditors, 11, The Verification of Book Debts’, The Accountant, 12 Jan. 1901, 42. For an account of the objectives of auditing see T.A. Lee, ‘A Brief History of Company Audits: 1840–1940’, The Accountants Magazine, August 1970, 363–8 and T.A. Lee, ‘The Nature of Auditing and its Objectives’, Accountancy, April 1970, esp. 292–3.
64. T. Greenwood, ‘Half-Truths in Audited Accounts’, The Accountant, 16 April 1932,521.
65. Sir Josiah Stamp, ‘Accountants’ Problems of Today’, The Accountant, 31 Oct. 1925, 685–7.
66. N. 10, 15 June 1945, 1.
67. Emphasis supplied. N. 9, 12 January 1945, 1.
68. E. Stamp, ‘The public accountant and the public interest’, Journal of Business Finance, 1–2 (1969) 33.
69. P. Bird, ‘Standard Accounting Practice’. Seminar paper at Manchester, October 1971 (emphasis supplied).
70. E. Stamp, ‘The public accountant…’, loc. cit.
71. O. Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations (1963) 79.
72. R.H. Coase, R.S. Edwards and R.F. Fowler, The Iron and Steel lndustry 1926–1935 (London and Cambridge Economic Service, Special Memoranda, 49). Also by the same authors Published Balance Sheets as an Aid to Economic Investigation-Some Difficulties (Accounting Research Association, No. 3, 1938).
73. F.E. Hyde, Shipping Enterprise and Management 1830–1939: Harrisons of Liverpool (1967) Appendices II and III.
74. T.A. Lee, ‘Company Financial Statements: An Essay in Business History, 1830–1950’ in Sheila Marriner (ed), Business and Businessmen. Studies in Businers, Economic and Accounting History (1978) 235–62.
75. Ibid., 260.
76. W.T. Baxter, ‘The Study of Balance Sheets’, The Accountants Magazine, 55 (1951) 63.