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Abstract
In the French language, the word comptabilité (accounting) first appeared in the middle of the eighteenth century. It was used in the Royal finances and its first meaning was that of accountability. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, or thereabouts, the uses of the word evolved gradually but in a somewhat confused manner. Once its meaning had become stabilised, the growing use of the word by an increasing population and the development of accounting activities created a need for adjectives to be added. Commercial, industrial and agricultural accounting, general and auxiliary accounting appeared, as well as the use of comptabilité to designate the accounting department. In this paper, we examine the evolution of words in the context of the development of accounting, seeking some help from amongst linguists.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Trevor Boyns (Cardiff Business School), Lisa Evans (University of Edinburgh), Julien Franco, Giuseppe Galassi (Universita’ degli Studi di Parma), Esteban Hernandez-Esteve (Universidad de Madrid), Yannick Lemarchand (Université de Nantes), Robert Parker (University of Exeter) and Vyacheslav Sokolov (PriceWaterhouseCoopers Audit – Moscow) for their comments and suggestions.
Notes
This distinction is attributable to de Saussure Citation(1915).
From the linguists we learn that a word does not have ‘meanings’, but only ‘uses’, but this distinction does not have much importance here.
Trésor de la Langue Française indicates a first occurrence of the word in 1579 (drawing from a journal published in 1937: Français moderne, p. 37). We checked in the book supposed to contain the word and only found compatibilité (compatibility) and not comptabilité.
For those definitions, please see appendix.
Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, ou Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) – http://www.bnf.fr
In the first half of the nineteenth century, several authors claimed to be the very first to deal with such or such accounting problem; they therefore propose to ground their founding process on new definitions for accounting words.
In the second half of the century, the most common use was that of ‘a recording technique’ and we could find, more rarely, ‘set of accounts’.
Comptabilité auxiliaire, générale, industrielle, commerciale, agricole, etc.
Coseriu Citation1958, chap. III, paragrap 3.2.3.
A paradox which is expressed as follows by Bally (Citation1950, 18): ‘Languages are always changing but can only work if they do not’. Incidentally, one could notice that it is the same for accounting rules.
On the complex relations between synchrony and diachrony of languages, see Coseriu Citation(1958).
We consider that an accounting author is someone who wrote a published book on accounting or bookkeeping.
The bibliography by Reymondin Citation(1909) is the most exhaustive document concerning accounting books published in the French language between 1543 and 1908. It includes hundreds of references.
Reymondin (Citation1909, 142) mentions a book on tenue des livres (bookkeeping) published by Bushall in 1764. We could not find this book. Two other references mention tenue des livres (bookkeeping) in their title: Gentil Citation(1777) and Degrange (1795). The 1795 (first) edition of the book by Degrange is also untraceable in any French library.
In addition to the bibliography by Reymondin Citation(1909), we have consulted the Catalogue Collectif de France (http://www.bnf.fr), including all references from the BNF and from all municipal and academic libraries.
We initially thought that there were previous occurrences but, after a check, it was found that earlier supposed uses reflected incorrect attributions, resulting from a confusion between the words comptabilité and compatibilité (compatibility).
But it is not known when.
‘Comptabilité is a new word, only used in the chambers of accounts: it means a particular nature of receipts and expenses of which we have to account; for example, the Royal Treasury, the Marine, the Fortifications are all different comptabilités’ (p. 792).
Chabaud was a professor in a college in Marseille.
A second use of the word is also given here, i.e. ‘the part of an administration which is in charge of the accounts’ (see below).
The sixth and last part of the book is entitled ‘A short and easy VOCABULARY of Certain Words that in the Language of Accompting take a Particular Meaning’. However, accompting is not present in the glossary. North uses accompting on several occasions in the introduction, for example in a title ‘I. The Excellency of Accompting by Debtor and Creditor’. A little bit further on (p.2), North mentions a synonym: ‘But the Art of Regular Accompting, or Bookkeeping’.
‘Part I. The ELEMENTS of MERCANTILE ACCOUNTANTSHIP’. (p. 13). The term is only used once.
Archives of Cher. 34 U 68
Archives of Isère. 94 J 337. Internal rules, dates from 1831–4.
Archives of Doubs. 28J. Internal rules, dates from 1824.
Archives of St-Gobain. 1L1.
CAMT à Roubaix, Cartex fonds. 1994045 0005.
Archives of Indre-et-Loire. 48 J 272.
Archives Saint-Gobain. C 44. ‘Accounting chart for the Royal Manufacture’.
Handwriting added, right at the top of the document.
‘Non, il n'est pas vrai qu'un teneur de livres, pour se former une idée de la comptabilité générale d'une régie, d'une administration, d'un ministère et même de la comptabilité générale et centrale de l'Etat, doive acquérir par un long noviciat ou exercice actif, les connaissances routinières des praticiens …’.
Degrange mentions examples drawn from public sector accounting. Moreover, he was among the first to publish a book on public sector accounting in 1807, showing his interest and skill in that field of knowledge.
File révision de la comptabilité (1875–6).062 AH 011. Archives of Crédit Lyonnais.
The comptes particuliers are the equivalent of ‘nominal accounts’, and comptes généraux the other accounts. This distinction draws on the idea that the comptes généraux make it possible to account for oneself.
According to Foucault, the functionalisation of space is part of a general reorganisation of space: the closure between an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’, the chequering which implies that everyone is placed in a specific area and the link between the place occupied and the hierarchical position.
Archives of Saint-Gobain. Hist C-3/3-2 and Plan 07 30 à 07 42.
Archives of Saint-Gobain. 1L1 Bis.
An illustration of the fact that the title had come into common use was the formation of an association of salaried accountants in 1930 (Compagnie des Chefs de Comptabilité).
‘Employé à la comptabilité, chef de comptabilité’.
Even today, the law sees every industrial activity as an ‘act of commerce’.
The word industrie changed its meaning at that time. Up to that period, it was a synonym for activity, or just business, in its primary use (the fact to be busy).
Receivers general (1807), industrialists (1824), Stockbrokers (1825).
In 1817, Jean-Baptiste Payen (mistakenly surnamed Anselme in several books or articles) made such a distinction, but this proposal was not followed by other authors.
‘Industrial accounting is a two stage activity: the first one embraces all operations relating to production until the achievement of the product; the second one, the commercial operations, relate to sales. The producer then becomes a merchant, and joins his commercial accounting to his special accounting’.
Surprisingly for the period, he uses the term comptabilité financière.
Industrial accounting is grounded in rules which allow one to follow the transformation of raw material, plain or complex, rare or numerous as they could be, from the time they enter the firm till they are delivered to the public.
Centre d'Archives du Monde du Travail, Roubaix. Cartex fonds. 1994056 0039.
Archives of Altadis. Factory of Toulouse (1936). J7. 100 J 112.
Archives of Saint-Gobain. Factories of Tours (1934) and Nantes (1933). Plan 20.
According to the expression of Fernand Braudel (Citation1979, 143).
Chapter III, paragraph 4.3.3.
We recently met a colleague, a former Professor of accounting, who introduced himself as a ‘Professor of financial accounting’; we asked him the reason for this new appellation, and after a few seconds, he confessed: ‘Because it is more sexy’.
See Reymondin (Citation1909, 290).