BRITISH COMPANIES LEGISLATION AND SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EVOLUTION DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Abstract

Many accounting historians have emphasized the importance of the 19th-century British Companies Acts on the early development of the accounting profession and professional practice in Britain (Sakolski, 1910; Littleton, 1953; Littleton and Zimmerman, 1962; Chatfield, 1977). However, it is surprising that most historians have not fully evaluated the causal impact of political, social and cultural influences on the development of companies legislation of this period. As Parker (1990) observes, most historians (for example, see Watts, 1977; Edey, 1956), have treated the 19th century as an extended era of laissez-faire, noting relatively insignificant developments occurring in company accounting legislation. Analysis of political and social evolution is argued in this paper to be essential for explaining the timing and development of companies legislation of this period. In so doing, this paper both compliments and extends on the work of Parker (1990), who identified rationales for different forms of companies legislation of this period. Specifically, the paper presents a theory of legislative change based on a framework developed in the pioneering thesis by A. V. Dicey (1905, 1914). A critical aspect of Dicey»s thesis is that the evolution of 19th-century companies legislation can be explained by reference to two distinct influences: laissez-faireand collectivism.