Accountants In Edinburgh Research Articles

Questions of ethics and etiquette in the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh, 1853–1951

The intangible qualities of honesty and integrity are essential elements of the ethos of the accounting profession. This article reflects on the changing and continuous nature of questions of professional ethics within the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh. Using the Society’s archives, it presents a review of the questions which vexed early leaders of that body. A historical analysis of these issues helps place current concerns about professional conduct into an appropriate temporal perspective and demonstrates the deep-rooted nature of challenges in forming a notion of professional ethics. The article focusses on issues such as members committing criminal acts, problems with delineating the professional space, advertising and the quality of training of apprentice accountants. The article adds to our understanding of the creation of an ethical framework governing the behaviour of professional accountants in one jurisdiction during the first century of the existence of an organised profession. The presentation of individual cases provides a personal touch and adds depth to the analysis.

Social closure and the incorporation of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854

The incorporation of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854 has been researched from different perspectives without attention to the overall occupational grouping to which the founders belonged. The existence of this larger community of accountants raises the question of whether the foundation involved social closure. The purpose of the paper is to pose and respond to this question by explaining social closure, examining the Society's foundational process for signs of possible exclusion, and observing founders and non-founders to identify differences in characteristics that provide possible explanations for exclusion. Archival evidence of the foundational process and differences in characteristics is consistent with the possibility of social closure without precluding other explanations for the founder and non-founder groupings. The evidence also raises the question of whether the foundation of the Society is completely explained by the external pressures associated with a potential loss of court-related appointments. The findings in the paper are sufficient to encourage further research of social closure in other associational foundations in the early history of modern public accountancy.

The contributions of Alexander Thomas Niven and John Ballantine Niven to the international history of modern public accountancy

This study examines the historical contributions to public accountancy of two Scottish Chartered Accountants. Alexander Thomas Niven was a charter member of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854. and founded the Scottish public accountancy firm of A T Niven and Company in 1859. His son, John Ballantine Niven, became a Society member in 1893, co-founded the American public accountancy firm of Touche, Niven and Company in 1900, and was elected President of the American Institute of Accountants in 1924. The professional careers of both men are analysed in the context of a researched genealogy of the Niven family over two centuries in Scotland and the US. The analysis reveals the potential impact of successive generations of the Niven family in Scotland on the professional careers of Alexander Thomas Niven and John Ballantine Niven, and the significance of the latter's emigration to the development of the American profession. The historical contributions of both men are discussed within the context of specific economic and social factors over a considerable period of time. The conclusions of the study are that each Niven career was more than the sum of the events of a defined lifetime, and that the transfer of public accountancy knowledge through the emigration of John Ballantine Niven was a vital ingredient in the maturation of the American profession.

A SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS OF THE FOUNDERS OF INSTITUTIONALIZED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANCY

This paper examines the social relations of the founders of the first institutions of modern public accountancy in Scotland. The study uses archival data to construct social networks prior to 1854. Individual founders in the networks are identified as potentially significant sources of influence in the foundation events. The paper reports the social network analysis in several parts. First, relations between the founders of The Institute of Accountants in Edinburgh (IAE), renamed The Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (SAE), are networked. Second, a similar analysis is made of the foundation of The Institute of Accountants and Actuaries in Glasgow (IAAG). Third, social links between individual founders of the IAE/SAE and IAAG are identified. The research results are generally consistent with prior studies but reveal significant matters not identified by other researchers. The social network analysis of the IAE/SAE founders confirms the existence of a cohesive and elite community and the presence of an elite within an elite. There is evidence of strong links to lawyers and landowners, as well as significant links to the insurance industry.

The life and career of John Spence Ogilvy (1805–71), the first chartered accountant to emigrate to Australia

So far as the available evidence allows, this paper examines the life and career of John Spence Ogilvy, foundation member of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854, who emigrated to Melbourne in 1856, but did not play a part in the development of an organized accounting profession in Australia. The paper also attempts to explain the gap of thirty-two years between the formation of the first accounting bodies in Edinburgh and Melbourne.

The criminal upperworid and the emergence of a disciplinary code in the early chartered accountancy profession

The paper analyses the circumstances which resulted in the formulation of a disciplinary code by the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (SAE) during the 1880s. The episode is related through historical biographies of two villainous practitioners: Henry Callender and Donald Smith Peddie. The absence of codified regulations pertaining to professional conduct in the early constitution of the SAE is explored in the context of prevailing vocational ideologies and the role of admission stipulations as sociocultural filtering devices. It is revealed that organisational responses to cases of criminal misconduct were positively correlated with the degree of "offence visibility" and the resultant level of adverse publicity. The protective and status-preserving motives for the framing of disciplinary rules by professional associations are also highlighted. The study emphasises the potential impact of the disreputable practitioner on the construction and destruction of the institutions of professionalism.

Identifying the founding fathers of public accountancy: the formation of The Society of Accountants in Edinburgh

Despite histories of the early Scottish accountancy bodies (e.g., Brown, 1905; Stewart, 1977; Walker, 1988; Kedslie, 1990a, 1990b), there has been little research in depth to identify the small group of men who felt compelled to form the first professional organization in 1853 (The Society of Accountants in Edinburgh [SAE]). This paper describes the sequence of formation events and meetings in 1853 and 1854, and identifies those individuals most closely involved with the planning of the SAE. The main achievements of the study are to record the men and events of the SAE formation in a detail not previously attempted, and to demonstrate the elitist nature of the formation. The overall conclusion is that the emergence of the SAE in the mid-nineteenth century was as much the creation of a social elite as it was an economic monopoly.

Actuarial Theory - “Actuarial Theory”: Notes for Students on the subject-matter required in the Second Examinations of the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland, with numerous practical examples and exercises. By William A. Robertson, F.F.A., and Frederick A. Ross, F.F.A., Member of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London, 1907.

Actuarial Theory - “Actuarial Theory”: Notes for Students on the subject-matter required in the Second Examinations of the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland, with numerous practical examples and exercises. By William A. Robertson, F.F.A., and Frederick A. Ross, F.F.A., Member of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London, 1907.