ACCOUNTING, CONTROL AND ACCOUNTABILITY: PRELIMINARY EVIDENCE FROM ANCIENT EGYPT

Abstract

Drawing on evidence from the New Kingdom (1552–1069 BC) in ancient Egypt, this paper provides some preliminary findings relating to the functioning of accounting particularly as it relates to control and accountability. Ancient Egypt evolved a redistributive economic system which remained prevalent for most of her long history. The political and economic domains were coordinated by a powerful bureaucracy in which accounting played a major role. The evidence suggests that the intervention of accounting was manifest in many ways, in particular defining and constituting the domain of economic activities, and through measurement and quantification accounting imparted visibility and with it particular meanings and significance upon such activities. Examples of accounting's intervention include the quantification of input-output relationships, such as in the case of baking bread or brewing beer, and the construction of lists of inventories in the palace, the temples, and the royal granaries. Measures used were expressed in physical terms and the accounting practices which emerged were sufficiently developed to operate as systems of accountability even though there is no direct evidence to confirm that they were used as such. The paper argues that accounting systems were instrumental in constituting exchange reciprocity between both parties of a transaction, by developing metrics of quantity and quality which rendered reciprocity visible. The paper also hints at the role of accounting in legitimising the authority/power of state officials, particularly the scribes and at the extent to which accounting may have been of ceremonial value in justifying their social status.