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The paper enables to observe the complex bookkeeping system practiced by the Benedictine monks of the Monastery of Silos (Burgos, Spain) during the Ancien Régime, and to show the utility for the efficient register and control of a variety of economic activities. The high quality of the information contained in the Account Books of the Monastery of Silos has made possible the analysis, quantification and interpretation of this activity. The economic development which the Monastery and its surroundings underwent from the end of the XVIII Century up to the beginning of the XIX Century was enabled by a complex of contributions. This paper presents an itemized breakdown of the different types of income arisen from the exploitation, administration and economic management of the assets held by the Monastery. Thanks to it, it is possible to determine the absolute and relative importance of each of them. Interest of credit loans or Censos, rental fees for arable land given in leasing, as well as direct returns of the direct exploitation of land and livestock constituted the main sources of income. Income provided by the ecclesiastical condition of the monks and by their religious activities: tithes, sacristy donations and extraordinary gifts, had also great importance. The use of he funds raised is analyzed with the same care, providing a detailed summary of the funds applications. The research concludes with a reflexion on the accounting procedures used by the Silos monks and their functions and evolution, comparing these features with the ones showed in other institutions. Special attention is paid to the diversifying of accounting practices according to the nature of the economic transactions recorded as well as to their influence on the creation of patrimony. Finally, the role of the Monastery of Silos as and economic and social agent keeping a permanent interest to participate in the market and in economic life is thoroughly analyzed. The research has been based on the records of following books: Libro de Mayordomia (Cellarer Book), Libro Borrador (Journal), Libro Deposito (Deposits Book), Libro de Censos (Long Term Loans Book), Libro de Obras (Building Works Book) and Libro de Granería (Granary Book), books that have survived for the whole period analyzed. The several circumstances that, after the general expropriation of Spanish monasteries’ properties in 1835, led to the recovery of the Silos account books, provide this study with an exceptional value, due to fact that normally the Spanish monasteries do not keep a wide and complete set of their account books.

The Spanish Bank of San Fernando created in 1847, as result of a merge, presented important losses, which were corrected in the last six years of its life. The change of denomination in 1856 adopting the name of Bank of Spain, did not suppose any real variation, because it kept its activity in all significant aspects. In 1856, the Spanish banking system was radically transformed. The possibility to create local issuing banks was opened, as well as a new type of banking entities, the Credit Societies, similar to the present private banks. All of this enabled competition. Later, many of these institutions failed as a consequence of the crisis of all type that our country underwent in the period examined. A series of extraordinary facts and circumstances deteriorated as much the public image of the Spanish Bank of San Fernando that it was brought at bankruptcy’s door. Apart from the financial solutions adopted to solve its capital problems, other measures were taken in order to protect its reputation. Among other measures, it was decided to reduce to the minimum the information provided on the Institution situation and its activities. In this sense, the General Meeting of Shareholders was not convened during three years (1848-1851). When the critical situation was overcome, the normality returned and the General Meetings of Shareholders were regularly held and the information reached progressively a normal level. The analysis is extended until 1873, just before the Bank of Spain became, in a definitive and permanent manner, the only Spanish issuing bank. It was endowed with an extensive national branches net, had a sound solvency, and new operative activities. In any case, it always remained at the service of the State, its principal debtor. To reach such position it had to overcome some moments certainly hazardous. The aim of this paper is to explain how, after its fall, the reputation of the Bank, this great intangible good, could be reconstructed. This purpose is pursued above all through the examination of the financial statements published in the Annual Report. Thanks to the analysis of the qualitative image transmitted by them,     and its comparison to the real situation of the Entity, in many moments not known by the public opinion, we were able to get an idea of the scene. This was properly so because the information provided by the Annual Reports permitted an analysis far beyond the purely numerical data. Thus by the simple reading of the statements and the study of their evolution, we could obtain material to accomplish our qualitative analysis, quite different from the examination of the purely countable or legal aspects as those and also later times was the use. In the present world, with the financial statements normalization, this kind of analysis could, in general, not be done. In any case, the image of the entity transmitted by the Annual Reports is subject of careful study, because corporations are fully conscious that it is a basic component of their reputation.  

Taking as starting point the 8th World Congress of Accounting Historians this paper attempts to identify the orientations followed by accounting history research in the first years of the 21st century, that is, from 2000 up to 2007. The main purpose of the attempt is to find out whether there have been significant novelties in the directions of research or, on the contrary, its development has run in the foreseeable course. We shall try to associate this purpose to the study of the amount of related research published in the main accounting journals. After having examined and described the developments of accounting history research in the first years of present century, the paper presents some considerations on the directions in which research should move in the next future. To do this I have taken into account the main papers on the state of the art published in the period studied and above all examined carefully papers published in journals specifically or mainly devoted to accounting history, that is, Accounting Historians Journal, Accounting, Business and Financial History, Accounting History, Contabilità e Cultura Aziendale and De Computis. With the same purpose, I have gone through the, in this sense, most relevant accounting journals. Among all of them the ones that according to the number of papers published on this discipline in the years under study have shown more interest in accounting history have been Accounting, Organizations and Society, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, European Accounting Review, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Revista Espanola de Financiacion y Contabilidad, Abacus, Revista de Contabilidad, Accounting and Business Research, and Accounting Forum. Apart from these, we have found papers on accounting history in about fifty further journals among the ones examined. In all we have found papers on our discipline in 62 journals. The papers in these journals that have been taken into consideration amount in total to 683. Even though they often represent indeed the most recent and advanced research, we have not taken into account the unpublished papers presented at the main congresses and meetings on accounting history. In many cases they are not complete papers but working ones. In other cases repeated amended versions of them are presented in subsequent congresses. Therefore their consideration would unjustifiably enlarge the volume of research done. Moreover the most significant of them are certainly published.

The accounting history research presented here has been carried out at the Archive of the Cathedral of Segovia and covers the period in which it was built, that is between the years 1524 and 1685. According to their contents and importance, the accounting documents found at the above mentioned archive have been sorted into two categories: Main books and Auxiliary books. We call Main books those kept to record the general accounts of the financing and expenditure of the works of construction of the building of the Segovia Cathedral. They were periodically presented to the approval of the bishop. The office responsible for keeping all account books and, in general, for the administration of the income of the Cathedral was called “Fábrica”, that is, Factory. The Auxiliary books were used as daily registers to record in detail the different operations carried out by the administrators. They were the documentary basis for the later elaboration of the Main books. The Auxiliary books received different names, according to the type of operations -collections and payments basically- registered on them.     First of all, we analyze in this article the contents of each type of Auxiliary books still remaining in the archive of the cathedral. By doing it, we observe some practices taken over afterwards by double-entry bookkeeping, such as the use of two opposed pages to record respectively the debit side (Debe) and the credit side (Adeaver). Then, we proceed to the study in accounting terms of the Main books of the cathedral. They were kept following the Charge and Discharge method. Finally, we describe in detail the system that the “Fabrica” of the Segovia Cathedral had implemented to keep its records. It was a pure Charge and Discharge method, although the Auxiliary books show some practices and terms used by double-entry bookkeeping.  

This paper forms part of a more extensive research project. Its aim within this project is to present the laws governing the organization, administration and accounting of the Spanish Royal Treasury in the American territories. To this purpose the relevant regulations are studied and commented, together with the evaluations of the specialized authors who have analyzed them. In the light of these regulations are then described the organization, structure and officers of the Indian Exchequer, as well as the main features of its organization, administration and accounting.  

VI Encuentro de trabajo sobre Historia de la Contabilidad. Valladolid, 5 al 7 de noviembre de 2008