Suchergebnisse

In a report issued in 1994, the Jenkins Committee advocated the integration of managerial statistics, which could be used to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm's management, into financial statements. This study traces the development, and subsequent demise, of similar managerial information within the financial statements of the Quincy Mining Company in the nineteenth century. Two contemporary models for financial disclosure are developed for comparative purposes and it is concluded that the Quincy Mining Company intentionally restricted the information available to shareholders. By clarifying the disclosure practices of a single firm in an unregulated environment, this study provides insights to the origins of modern financial reporting.

In 1888, the Quincy Mining Company changed its payroll accounting practices. Although efficiency was almost certainly a contributing factor, the nature and timing of this accounting innovation cannot be fully explained by efficiency alone. Instead, this paper attributes the new procedures to the transformation of American labor that characterized the last part of the 19th century. It is argued that the accounting changes reflect a realignment of the organizational relationship between management and labor. Through a contextual examination of a 19th century accounting innovation, this paper provides insights to the social and cultural influences upon accounting processes.

This study addresses the nature of accounting innovations within the context of the Quincy Mining Company's response to the disruption of the domestic copper market following the Civil War. Primary documentation is used to first define the firm's cost management activities, then to define the characteristics of the firm's internal accounting practices that contributed to these activities. It is argued that, although accounting was a participant in the cost control process, it was a paternalistic social structure that provided the impetus for the firm's struggle to remain profitable.