Elucidating needs, lifestyles, and community: researching a late eighteenth-century account book from Lexington, Virginia

Abstract

This article deals with the search for the identity of the individual for whom an elaborate late eighteenth-century American account book was prepared. The article is also concerned with how the account book served the needs of this merchant and how the book reflects the socioeconomic conditions of the times in which the merchant lived. This book shows his multifaceted activities as a merchant, importer, exporter and banker, highlighting the lack of specie and extensive use of barter at the time.

Accounting for Accounting History: A topic modeling approach (1996–2015)

“…For example, Hollister and Schultz (2007) reconstruct the activities of two stores in 1790s New York through their accounting records, building a theory about the role of small merchants and business life in North America. Similarly, Bloom and Solotko (2008) reflect on American merchants’ socioeconomic conditions in the eighteenth century, through the analysis of an individual account book. In addition, McDonald (2005) analyses William the Conqueror’s accounting record to understand the eleventh-century English economy.…”

Shades of theory: A topic modelling of ways of theorizing in accounting history research

“…Topic 9, ‘Analysing documents’, characterizes papers that draw upon letter, minutes, proposals to analyse different events of relevance, referring also to the time when the documents were issued ( June, March ) and to the senders or receivers of the documents ( board, chairmen, committee ). On the other hand, Topic 23, ‘Analysing the accounts’, characterizes papers in which the sources of data are financial accounts, which are then analysed for purposes ranging from understanding the technicalities of financial accounting (Noke, 1996) to investigating the socio-economic conditions of specific groups (Bloom and Solotko, 2008).…”

Surveying the landscape: The first 15 years of Accounting History as an international journal

“…Unusually, there are in aggregate slightly more articles about accounting in the USA and Australia that are set, in all or part, in eras prior to the nineteenth century (e.g. Scorgie & Reiss, 1997; Wootton & Moore, 2000; Craig et al , 2004; Fleischman et al , 2004; Hollister & Schultz, 2007; Bloom & Solotko, 2004, 2008; Bisman, 2009a) than there are similar articles set in the UK. For other nations, articles vary more widely across the temporal landscape, with those about accounting in Italy spanning the fourteenth to twentieth centuries, from the sixteenth century onwards concerning Spain, and in ancient times in Africa (e.g.…”