Auditing Practices from a Historical Perspective: The Case Study of an Italian Railroad Company in the Mid-19th Century

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Antonelli ◽  
Raffaele D'Alessio ◽  
Emanuela Mattia Cafaro

ABSTRACT From a historic perspective, the origin and evolution of auditing in the private sector is extremely interesting, especially in regard to 19th-century railroad companies. This paper concerns the auditing practices of the Leopolda Railroad Company, which operated in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy (1841–1860). Through the use of mainly primary sources, we describe how auditors were selected and hired; their procedures, recommendations, and meetings; and the contents of their reports. This paper makes three contributions to the international literature in accounting history: (1) it is the first paper to present the history of auditing practices in Italy, (2) it broadens literature on external and internal audits in railroad companies, and (3) it supports the assumptions made by many accounting historians about the origin of auditing in industrial capitalism.

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (S 01) ◽  
pp. S4-S8
Author(s):  
S. Bhattacharya ◽  
V. Khanna ◽  
R. Kohli

ABSTRACTThe earliest documented history of cleft lip is based on a combination of religion, superstition, invention and charlatanism. While Greeks ignored their existence, Spartans and Romans would kill these children as they were considered to harbour evil spirits. When saner senses prevailed Fabricius ab Aquapendente (1537–1619) was the first to suggest the embryological basis of these clefts. The knowledge of cleft lip and the surgical correction received a big boost during the period between the Renaissance and the 19th century with the publication of Pierre Franco's Petit Traité and Traité des Hernies in which he described the condition as “lièvre fendu de nativitè” (cleft lip present from birth). The first documented Cleft lip surgery is from China in 390 BC in an 18 year old would be soldier, Wey Young-Chi. Albucasis of Arabia and his fellow surgeons used the cautery instead of the scalpel and Yperman in 1854 recommended scarifying the margins with a scalpel before suturing them with a triangular needle dipped in wax. The repair was reinforced by passing a long needle through the two sides of the lip and fixing the shaft of the needle with a figure-of-eight thread over the lip. Germanicus Mirault can be credited to be the originator of the triangular flap which was later modified by C.W. Tennison in 1952 and Peter Randall in 1959. In the late 50s, Ralph Millard gave us his legendary ‘cut as you go’ technique. The protruding premaxilla of a bilateral cleft lip too has seen many changes throughout the ages OE from being discarded totally to being pushed back by wedge resection of vomer to finally being left to the orthodontists.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Ariail ◽  
Joe Durden ◽  
Marilynn Leathart ◽  
Lynette Chapman-Vasill

ABSTRACT The 82 years of accounting evolution that separate the audits of 1928 and 2009 under different accounting and auditing standards are examined through a cross-disciplined case study that compares the historical 1928 and the contemporary 2009 financial statements and the accompanying audit reports of Avondale Estates, Georgia. The 1928 and 2009 reports and financial statements of this municipality, along with the municipality's current budget information accessible over the Internet, can be used in a number of ways to enhance the instruction of governmental accounting at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. In addition to aiding in the teaching of current governmental accounting standards, the case also can be used to give the student a historical perspective on governmental accounting and the accounting profession. By comparing the accounting and reporting standards used in 1928 and 2009, the student will gain an understanding of the evolution of accounting thought. Moreover, the auditors' reports for the two periods illustrate the historical and continuing public service role of the CPA profession as detailed in ET Section 53 of the AICPA Professional Standards (AICPA 2010). Thus, this case study gives the accounting instructor a useful vehicle for teaching accounting history and thought.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Hawkins

Purpose This paper explores the development of a luxury retail shoe brand in Belle Époque Vienna. Design/methodology/approach Footwear retailing and marketing history is a neglected area. Unfortunately, no business records have survived from Robert Schlesinger’s shoe stores. However, it has been possible to reconstruct the history of the development of the Paprika Schlesinger brand from its extensive advertising in the Viennese newspaper, the Neue Freie Presse, with the guidance of the founder’s grandson, Prof Robert A. Shaw, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Birkbeck, University of London, England. This case study would not have been possible without the digitization of some major collections of primary sources. In 2014, the European Union’s Europeana digitization initiative launched a new portal via the Library of Europe website which provides access to selected digitized historic newspaper collections in libraries across Europe. The project partners include the Austrian National Library which has digitized full runs of several major historic Austrian newspapers, including the Neue Freie Presse. Other project partners which have digitized historic newspapers which are relevant to this paper are the Landesbibliothek Dr Friedrich Teßmann of Italy’s Südtirol region, the National Library of France and the Berlin State Library. An associate project partner library, the Slovenian National and University Library’s Digital Library of Slovenia, has also digitized relevant historic newspapers. Furthermore, the City of Vienna has digitized a complete set of Vienna city directories as part of its Wienbibliothek Digital project. Findings This paper suggests that Robert Schlesinger created one of the first European luxury retail shoe brands. Originality/value This is the first academic study of the historical development of the advertising and marketing of a European luxury retail shoe brand.


ARTis ON ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Shir Kochavi

A diplomatic gift in the form of a Hanukkah Lamp, given to President Harry Truman by the Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion in 1951 was selected for this occasion by museum personnel from the Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem and the Jewish Museum in New York. Based on primary sources found in archives in Israel and in the United States, this case study investigates the process of objects exchange between two museums, orchestrated on the basis of an existing collegial relationship, and illustrates how the Hanukkah Lamp becomes more than itself and signifies both the history of the Jewish people and the mutual obligations between the two nations. Drawing on the theories of Marcel Mauss, Arjun Appadurai, and Igor Kopytoff on the notion of the gift, the article highlights the layers of meanings attributed to a gifted object.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 137-162
Author(s):  
Thomas Eich

This paper analyzes the so-called Ibn Masʿūd ḥadīth (see below) on two levels: the specific wording of the ḥadīth on the one hand and a significant portion of the commentation written about it since the 10th century until today on the other. This aims at three things. First, I will show how the ḥadīth’s exact wording still developed after the stabilization of the material in collections. Although this development occurred only on the level of single words, it can be shown that it is a reflection of discussions documented in the commentaries. Therefore, these specific examples show that there was not always a clear line separating between ḥadīth text and commentaries on that text. Second, the diachronic analysis of the commentaries will provide material for a nuanced assessment in how far major icons of commentation such as Nawawī and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī significantly influenced following generations in composing their respective commentaries. Third, I will argue that in the specific case study provided here significant changes in the commentation can be witnessed since the second half of the 19th century which are caused by the spread of basic common medical knowledge in that period.


Author(s):  
Yulia Yurtaeva

The research on the “Intervision”, used as an empiric case study about the inter-cultural communication between its participants, consists of examining primary sources spread over several archives throughout Europe to collect structural and administrative data, making interviews with contemporary witnesses and evaluating statistics – with mainly the task to widen the perspective on a subject, that was formerly nation-focused or being described with a Western view only. As the preliminary steps of a basic study on the History of the Program Exchange in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, this research became an example, with which challenges one is confronted within an Media Archaeological task.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Azham Md. Mi ◽  
Lee Teck Heang ◽  
Brian West

<p class="Style2">The accounting history literature identifies a tendency for accounting in developing countries to be dominated by the style of accounting institutions and practices of western developed nations - particularly the USA and UK.This "importation" hypothesis is investigated and refined through a case study examination of the history of accounting in Malaysia during the formative years of 1957 to 1969. This era commences with the Malay States gaining independence from Britain and closes with the race riots which marked a turning point in the nation's history. The establishment of the Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) in 1958 and the passing of the Companies Act of 1965 and the Accountants Act of 1967 are identified as key events which perpetuated British colonial influence within the new nation. These circumstances add credence to the "importation" hypothesis and support a depiction of accounting and its institutional apparatus as regularising forces with a capacity to transcend political and social change within a nation state.</p><p class="Style2">Keywords: accounting profession, professionalisation, Malaysia, colonialism</p>


Author(s):  
Silvia Sinicropi ◽  
Damiano Cortese ◽  
Massimo Pollifroni ◽  
Valter Cantino

This study emphasizes the history of accountancy, shedding light on its link with artistic and cultural patrimony, an issue that is scarcely addressed but is nearly always a matter underlying the greatest monuments of our civilization. As a case study, this study focuses on one of the significant architectural monuments of the City of Turin: the “Church of Gran Madre di Dio”; which was built to celebrate a historical and political event. Today it is a place of worship, a tourist attraction and a pilgrimage site. The current study corrects, from an accounting and historical perspective, the paucity of knowledge related to the Church of “Gran Madre di Dio”, and it also highlights the social impact its construction had upon the Turin area.


1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Coburn ◽  
George M. Torrance ◽  
Joseph M. Kaufert

Freidson's concept of medical dominance is compared to the alternative conceptions of neo-Marxist writers. Dominance is then examined in historical perspective, using medicine in Canada (mainly Ontario) as a case study. Medicine emerged as the dominant health occupation in Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, consolidating its power between World War I and the Saskatchewan doctors' strike of 1962. The authors argue that medical dominance has declined since that time due to such factors as the involvement of the state in health insurance, the rise of other health occupations, increasing public or at least elite skepticism, and possible internal fragmentation. The underlying social explanation for this historical process is sought in changes in the Canadian class structure, specifically the spread of the capitalist mode of production, the decline of the petite bourgeoisie, and the rise of the state. It is suggested that Freidson's specific accounts of the history of medicine must be incorporated for explanatory purposes within the broader neo-Marxist view of medicine as an intermediary rather than an ultimately determining institution.


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