Accounting for triangular trade

Abstract

This study complements our investigations into the use of accounting manuals as representations of commercial activities. Our previous work focused on the Guide du Commerce of Gaignat de l'Aulnais and the slave trade in eighteenth-century France. We broaden our scope with cross-sectional archival evidence to examine the extent to which the methods and operations in these sources point to a collective knowledge shared amongst traders and those engaged to conduct the slave trade on their behalf. Of particular interest is the prevalence of standardised methods, documents and terms of trade, all of which point, in a similar way to that of the Guide du Commerce, to the slave trade's technical contributions to capitalism (Petre-Grenouilleau 2004, 352). The archival evidence illustrates the rationalisation and institutionalisation of an economic system, albeit a particular outlier, and its progressive sophistication in terms of operating processes, creating thereby the illusion of a rational business model.accounting manuals, institutional networks, knowledge transmission, triangular trade, France,

Accounting, slavery and social history: The legacy of an eighteenth-century Portuguese chartered company

“…McWatters and Lemarchand (2009) have also made an important contribution to knowledge of the accounting and financial aspects of the slave trade, focusing on the French case and concluding that ‘the triangular pattern of the slave trade was reflected in the accounting process’ (p. 190). In searching for the origin of the accounting practices used, the authors identify the Guide du Commerce as ‘likely one of the very first specialized manuals on accounting’ and investigate ‘the extent to which the manual reflects real-world practices and provides a faithful glimpse into the socio-economic context of the period’ (McWatters and Lemarchand, 2006: 1).…”

“…In searching for the origin of the accounting practices used, the authors identify the Guide du Commerce as ‘likely one of the very first specialized manuals on accounting’ and investigate ‘the extent to which the manual reflects real-world practices and provides a faithful glimpse into the socio-economic context of the period’ (McWatters and Lemarchand, 2006: 1). In a subsequent work, they gathered ‘archival evidence to examine the extent to which the methods and operations in these sources point to a collective knowledge shared amongst traders and those engaged to conduct the slave trade on their behalf’ (McWatters and Lemarchand, 2009: 189).…”

Accounting and the history of the everyday life of captains, sailors and common seamen in eighteenth-century Portuguese slave trading

“…Being ‘among the worst violations of human rights in the history of humanity’ (United Nations, 2008), 3 slavery and the slave trade have inspired countless studies across numerous areas of research. However, the accounting side of this dark event has only recently inspired researchers, who have focused on different locations and time frames, including the United States Antebellum South and British West Indies (Barney and Flesher, 1994; Fleischman et al, 2004, 2011a, 2011b; Fleischman and Tyson, 2004; Heier, 2010; Oldroyd et al, 2008; Vollmers, 2003), the French slave trade (McWatters and Lemarchand, 2006, 2009, 2010), and the South Sea Company and the Spanish Asiento (Carmona et al, 2010; Donoso Anes, 2002). This body of research has highlighted the enabling role accounting played in the slave trade.…”

Accounting, slavery and the slave trade: A multi-continental perspective

“…What do accounting records, understood broadly, tell us about the contribution of Atlantic slavery to European prosperity?. In addition to the TASTD, there are numerous studies (Clarkson, 1808;Draper, 2008;Eltis and Engerman, 2000;Haggerty, 2009;McDade, 2011;McWatters and Lemarchand, 2009) that have explored the slave-trade's contribution to European wealth through examinations of customs records, investment registers and shipping logs. We can also correlate participation in the slave-trade with estimates of national output per capita (Palma and Reis, 2019).…”

“…Elsewhere, accounting historians have pointed to the role of accounting and slavery in the colonisation of the Caribbean (Graham, 2019;Tyson and Oldroyd, 2019) and Brazil (Pinto and West, 2017;Rodrigues et al, 2014;Silva et al, 2019). Others have used accounting records to explore slavery's role in the longterm economic success of France (McWatters and Lemarchand, 2009) and Britain (Draper, 2008;Eltis and Engerman, 2000;McDade, 2011).…”