Learning from history. Deconstructing the charge-and-discharge system within an accountability context

ABSTRACT

The charge-and-discharge system was widely used throughout previous centuries and in all types of institutions, but the variables that shape accountability arrangements have not been analysed systematically in a comprehensive way. This study provides an extensive survey of charge-and-discharge accounting across a wide time frame (from the Roman Empire to the nineteenth century), a range of institutions (government, aristocratic, church, business and so forth), and a range of countries. Such large-scale comparisons benefit researchers who are focusing on a single time period, region, or institutional type. Our main objective is to decompose the charge-and-discharge system and classify its elements in terms of cause-and-effect relationships. We adopt a qualitative methodology to identify the features, the cause-and-effect relationships, and the spheres in which meaning is perceived (accounting, institutions, and society). Based on our results, we conclude that the charge-and-discharge system is a multivariable and multicausal phenomenon used in the context of delegated management, which acquires greater relevance as a mechanism of accountability. Charge-and-discharge involves an obligation to explain and justify one’s conduct. Our objective is to open further discussion in an accountability context and facilitate future in-depth studies that reveal the development, processes, and effects of accountability within the accounting, institutional and social context across space and time.

KEYWORDS:

• Accountability
• charge-and-discharge
• institution
• agency theory
• society

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the editor for her advice, helpful suggestions, and invaluable assistance to improve the content of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Accounting Business and Financial History was renamed Accounting History Review in 2011.

2 ‘la cuenta y razón que tiene de dar el administrador es una memoria de lo que da y rescibe o porque delo que rescibe tiene de dar cuenta por memoria y ansimismo de lo que da’ (Del Castillo 1542, 3v).

3 “[…] en el que se pretende evitar la sospecha de fraude contra el agente, demostrando que no se habían añadido gastos y reducido ingresos, demostrando así su inocencia” (Del Castillo 1542, 11 vo).