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The paper begins with a brief review of the principal factors that limited the development of accounting records in Italy at the turn of the 13th century. These factors were the ignorance of Arabic numerals, the nonexistence of paper and the precariousness of the socio-economic conditions in many Italian regions. Despite these, the numerous monasteries found in almost all regions and the merchant enterprises in the main coastal cities, like Venice, Genoa, Pisa, etc., all kept some kind of accounting records. The hand-written Liber Abaci by Leonardo Pisano was finished in 1202 and introduced Arabic numerals in Italy; its gradual dissemination contributed, little by little, to overcome the difficulties posed by the use of Roman numerals in arithmetic calculations, above all multiplications and divisions. The first paper factory in Italy was established at the end of the 13th century in Fabriano, a city in the region of Marche. The 14th century brought increasing improvement of the socio-economic conditions in the more progressive Italian areas with the emergence of a fresh born capitalism. In this same century double entry accounting came into use, a method which became fully developed in 1430 when the first known Journals appear, i.e., the Andrea Barbarigo's Journals. Therefore, when Luca Pacioli arrived in Venice in 1465 double entry accounting had already come of age. Subsequently, the paper studies the accounting practices followed in the principal Italian regions prior to the publication of Luca Pacioli's Tractatus XI as a chapter of his Summa de Arithmetica, that is, in Venice and its territories, Milan and Lombardy, Genoa and Liguria, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. The particular characteristics of the various methods of accounting practised in each one of these areas are described in detail, stressing the similarities and differences among them, as well as their respective approaches toward double entry. At that point, the paper examines with special interest the statement by Federigo Melis that Tuscany was the cradle of double entry accounting. In this respect, the distinctive features of double entry as stated by Luca Pacioli are weighed in, since they are considered the essence, the true model of the method. This established, the differences between Pacioli's model and the one proposed by Melis are examined in depth. These differences are considered the result of the author¿s excessive regional patriotism, who was determined to ascribe the invention of double entry accounting to his region, Tuscany. In reality, however, it seems that this method was developed almost simultaneously in various Italian regions.

This paper deals with the Neapolitan public banks. These institutions are particularly interesting in banking and accounting history because they were the first ones to issue paper money in form of deposit certificates or fedi di credito during the second half of the 16th century. These bank deposit certificates were negotiable by endorsement. Their issue was caused in some way by the need to remedy the chronic shortage of coins that the Reign of Neapel suffered, a Reign that belonged to the Spanish Crown at that time. The first public bank was the Monte di Pietà. The name of public bank does not mean that the bank capital was governmental, but only that the bank enjoyed the support and recognition of the authorities. In compensation for this support the bank was controlled by the government. The paper explains the economic difficulties of the Viceroyalty, the frequent bankruptcies of private bankers, the growing money shortage, the money forgery, the clipping of the good coins, the leakage of the same abroad, the tense attitude of aristocracy and its uprising attempts, the Philip II's failed plan to established in the Reign of Neapel an unique bank in order to serve as the Bank of the State with the function to carry out the cash service of the Treasury and above all to grant loans to the government in favourable conditions -it is remarkable in this sense the parallelism with the discussion held in Spain during these years-, etc. All these facts induced the Viceroy, between the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies to give a status of legal tender to the deposit certificates issued by the Monte di Pietà, in the sense that they could be used for every payment to the government. In view of the success obtained by this measure, the same privilege was granted to other six banks between the end of the century and the beginning of the 17th century. The seven Neapolitan public banks duly performed their task and their deposit certificates became a money that had general acceptation; it reached a great circulation volume and a fast turnover rate. At the end of the 19th century the seven banks merged giving rise to the present Banco di Napoli. Their impressive accounting documentation is conserved in the historic archive of this entity. The sophisticated accounting system implemented to record the issue, follow-up, control and cancellation of the deposit certificates is particularly interesting; it is explained in the last section of the paper.

This paper is based on a detailed study of the technical literature of the day as well as on thorough research in the archives. It aims to identify a relationship between the private standardization attempts of cost finding methods carried out in France between the two world wars and some ideologies of this period. Before incorporating it to the General French Accounting Plan of 1947, the so-called method of sections homogènes was considered by some of its supporters as an instrument to transform the social relations in the framework of a political project that went far beyond the business sphere. In principle the cost finding methods were considered by some employers' organizations as a means to protect companies against uncontrolled competition and to help agreements. But some scholars and professionals considered that the introduction of the standardization of cost finding methods could also be useful to improve the social relations within comp anies and the organization of work and salaries by structuring these in autonomous work groups. Two ideological trends -corporativism and technocracy-, developed during the twenties and thirties and in which traditionalism and conservatism were blithely mixed up, provided doctrinal support to these particular conceptions of cost finding applications. Afterwards, the events of June 1936 and the Occupation gave the opportunity to some individuals and movements that had curried favor with the State, to attemp t to put their ideas into practice. It is true that the autonomous work groups were then only in the experimental stages, and that the agreements and price controls did not require the method of sections homogènes to be applied. But the fact is that the latter were taken up again by the Accounting Plan and, consequently, were widely disseminated, mainly through teaching.

There is an ongoing debate in accounting history around the ways in which historical material should be gathered, interpreted, analysed and written. Lying at the heart of this debate is the perennial concern with 'objective/interpretive' modes of investigation. The mainstream orthodoxy of accounting history embraces the 'objective' view of history, whereas the alternative approach promotes interpretive and critical stances. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the achievements of NAH. This is attempted here by contrasting NAH with TAH along four dimensions: what counts as accounting; origins versus genealogies; roles of accounting; and sources of historical material. Under each of these dimensions, we show the differences between the two approaches and comment on the extent to which NAH may contribute to the study of accounting history. We argue that, although TAH and NAH approaches exhibit fundamental differences, both contribute significantly to the field, and indeed to the sharpening of each other's research agenda.

This paper examines and questions, in the light of the known evidences, some widely accepted ideas with respect to the use and spread of double entry during its first centuries of existence. In this regard, the author says that he does not believe that printed books and, in particular the Summa of Luca Pacioli, had a great direct effect on the diffusion of knowledge of the system and of its use. With regard to Pacioli's work, very few merchants would have known of him, or have heard of the publication of the Summa, or have been aware that it included a chapter on double entry bookkeeping. Moreover, the De scripturis section is not an effective exposition of the system. The reader's task would have been easier had the text included specimen rulings with specimen entries. The most serious deficiency of all is that Pacioli did not provide an illustrative set of account books in which the appropriate entries were entered for each of a series of transactions, and in which the end- products of the balancing and closing of the ledger were shown. Apart from that, the Summa is a large book of more than 600 large pages, of which De scripturis is only a small part. It would have been cumbersome to use for quick reference in a counting house. Although the author doubts whether Pacioli's had any or much direct effect on the spread of use of the double entry system inside or outside Italy, it certainly had a direct effect on the contents of three books published in the 1540s by an Italian, Manzoni, a Fleming, Ympyn, and an Englishman, Oldcastle. Having ruled out printed books as the main direct way of diffusion of double entry among merchants, the author wonders which were the main ways of diffusion of the new system. He means there were three ways: printed books, but in an indirect way, since he suspects that they were used mainly by teachers of the subject, and rarely used by auto-didactic merchants or bookkeepers who studied on their own; the movement of merchants, bookkeepers and apprentices from one commercial centre to another; and the activities of teachers of commercial subjects who gave private tuition. To this respect he offers some examples of these ways, giving special attention to the latter. Lastly, the paper also questions the extended belief that the double entry system was widely used in 16th century Europe. The author believes that it was possible that the new system might have been well known, but much more in the 17th century than in the 16th , and that only a few merchants outside Italy used it, most of whom were Italian or had done their apprenticeships in Italy.

The article, after summarising the characteristics of the economic governance of monasteries, analyses the financial activity of the Silos Monastery throughout the 17th and 19th centuries, and more specifically in the period 1665-1835. The wealth of documentation in the form of its Accountancy Books allows one to compare, analyse, interpret and quantify this activity. We have been able to draw conclusions as to the absolute and relative importance of this activity as part of the overall development of the Monastery and its environs during the period mentioned. Firstly, we carried out a thorough analysis of the main financial operation associated with much of the free lay property, namely the granting and redemption of mortgages implemented through "censos" (a kind of early mortgage loan). This information is to be found in the records of the Libro de Censos and their corresponding notarial public deeds in the Archive. In the same way, to determine the contribution and degree of significance of this financial activity in relation to the Monastery's total income, we have studied the different types of income existing, both from the economic administration and management of the Monastery's property - income from the "censos", income from land rented out for farming, and income obtained by direct exploitation of land and livestock by the Monastery itself, as well as income from the ecclesiastic and religious work of the Monastery -tithes, sacristy and extraordinary income-. This analysis was done by studying the records and notes made in the Cellarar's Book and the Deposit Book. Finally we offer reasons to explain why this ecclesiastic institution performed a permanent financial activity as well as the causes which induced peasants to get into debt.

Juan Baños Sánchez-Matamoros:Discurso, poder y contabilidad: Un Análisis Foucaultiano en el caso de las Nuevas Poblaciones de Sierra Morena y Andalucía (1767- 1772) Discourse, Power and Accounting: A Foucaultian Analysis in the Case of the New Settlements in Sierra Morena and Andalusia (1767-1772) Juan Luis Lillo Criado: Personas, técnicas y cambios contables en la Santa Capilla de San Andrés de Jaén (1650-1900) Persons, Techniques and Accounting Changes in the St Andrew Holy Chapel in Jaen (1650-1900) Fernando Rubín: La contabilidad en el Ayuntamiento de Sevilla en el último tercio del siglo XVI: el Libro Mayor de Caja Accounting in the Seville City Council during the Last Third of the16th Century: the Ledger Susana Villaluenga de Gracia: La Catedral de Toledo en la primera mitad del siglo XVI: Organización Administrativa, Rentas y Contabilidad The Toledo Cathedral at the First Half of the 16th Century: Administrative Organization, Income and Accounting

CRÓNICAS Reports Premio Enrique Fernández Peña de Historia de la Contabilidad 2004

The parish, fundamental prop in the history of the Church, receives importance as generating source of documents in the middle of the XVIth century with the canonical procedures emanated from the Council of Trent, held the years 1543 to 1562, when diverse chapters were promulgated in order to govern the parochial life and activities. As a result of these regulations the parish became both a producer and a receiver of documents, being the files of documentation that remain in its archives a patrimony of every parish. From its beginnings, the parish assumed administrative functions, needing a person to be in charge of the management of its goods. The maximum responsible for the economic administration of the parish was the "mayordomo" or administrator who was in charge of the exploitation of the properties, collection of the revenues and control of the expenses. He had to record the operations he managed in a set of account books. At the end of the respective period these records were transcribed by a notary in the libro de Quentas de Fabrica (General Account Book of the Parish) that was used for the rendering of the accounts. In fact, periodically these accounts were audited by the bishop or person designated by him to this effect, who expressed his opinion about them and in its case dictated the necessary amendments and mandates both in the aspects related to the worship and to the economics and countable matters. The accounting under study is therefore an ecclesiastical accounting, that is, a private accounting kept by the administrator or "mayordomo" on behalf of the parish in order to know and follow the parish operations of which he had to render accounts to the owners of the administered goods. Through the study of a figure of great relevancy in the parochial institution from the economiccountable point of view, namely the administrator, at the parish of Agüimes Town, in the island of Gran Canaria, during the period 1730-1830, it is intended to contribute to the enrichment of the history of accounting in the ecclesiastic area. This target is to be met by the investigation and description of the functions of the parochial administrator and their economic-countable implications, as well as by the analysis of the account books and other countable documentation kept by him and above all of the libro de Quentas de Fabrica (General Account Book of the Parish). This book served the administrator to render accounts before the bishop or general inspector designated to take them in the visits that were periodically carried out to the parishes.