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The Significance of the Profit and Loss Account in Nineteenth‐Century Britain: A Reassessment
Author(s) -
JONES STEWART,
AIKEN MAX
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
abacus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.632
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6281
pISSN - 0001-3072
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6281.1994.tb00350.x
Subject(s) - profit (economics) , economics , history , economic history , neoclassical economics
This article presents a reassessment of the development of regulated financial disclosure in nineteenth‐century British companies legislation. Most accounting historians have emphasized the importance of the balance sheet under the disclosure requirements of various Acts. The relative importance of the profit and loss account has been largely neglected by historians. This paper contends that the profit and loss account was a considerably more important document in the financial regulation of companies than previously contemplated. In fact, the profit and loss account was required in the disclosure regulations of numerous Acts, including the Joint Stock Banks Act (1844), the Regulation of Railways Act (1868), the Life Assurance Companies Act (1870) and the Building and Friendly Societies Act (1874).