Abstract
The early organization of accountants in Scotland has been explained as a consequence of the separate Scottish legal system, the rise of industrial society and as an attempt to achieve social closure and collective mobility. This paper reports on an historical investigation conducted within a critical-conflict paradigm which examined occupational organization in its contemporary socioeconomic and political contexts. It is shown that professional formation in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1853 was an organizational response to the activities of a powerful group of London merchants whose demands for law reform were founded on the dominant economic philosophy of mid-Victorian Britain and whose proposals threatened the interests of accountants in Scotland. Further, a linkage between the dynamics of professional organization in Scotland and subsequent developments in England is provided.
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