Accounting in society: a historical perspective

Accounting and recording of information have a rich, eclectic history traceable back to prehistoric times. History highlights the fact that accounting has always intertwined with the social. This chapter explores some of this rich history presenting an overview of the relevance of accounting in society through time. We commence with consideration of cave art and other rock paintings as an early form of environmental accounting. The connections between accounting, society and environmental issues are indicated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in relation to air quality and biodiversity. Public sector bookkeeping and accounting was deeply intertwined with business practices and social mores of the time. From the nineteenth century, professionalisation of accounting shows this social intertwining, in relation to closure, professional bodies, the social aspirations of accountants, and linkages between professionalisation, imperialism and nation building. Historical examples highlight the importance of exploring the social within accounting and accounting within society.