History of Corporate Financial Reporting in Britain

J.R Edwards is a professor of accounting at the Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. His research interests embrace various aspects of accounting history, with outputs published in academic journals, professional journals and in book form.

• Part 1. Setting the SceneChapter 1. Nature and Purpose of Corporate Financial Statements 1. Scope of text2. Nature of accounting change 3. Agency theory3.1. Lack of goal congruence3.2. CFS as a social construction4. The British experience5. Objectives of periodic financial statements5.1. Origins of stewardship reporting5.2. Early recognition of decision usefulness 5.3. Changing objectives of CFS6. ReviewChapter 2. Companies, Shareholders and Capital Markets 1. Introduction2. Origin of joint stock3. East India Company4. Speculation and risk5. South Sea Company6. Effect of the ‘Bubble Act’7. Chartered and statutory companies8. Registered company9. Origin of limited liability10. Rise of the limited liability company11. Investors and capital markets 12. Post World War 213. ReviewPart 2. Early Issues in Financial Reporting Chapter 3. Financial Reporting to c.1800. The Theory 1. Introduction 2. Trading environment3. Accounting statements of the early modern period4. Asset measurement procedures4.1. Merchandize4.2. Ships 4.3. Voyages4.4. Estates, land and houses4.5. Household furnishings, movables and valuables4.6. Securities and annuities4.7. Miscellaneous measurement issues 5. ReviewChapter 4. Financial Reporting to c.1800. The Practice 1. Introduction2. Balance sheet 2.1. East India Company balance sheet 17822.2. Languvelack Copper Works balance sheet 17453. Profit and loss account4. Profit measurement and asset valuation5. Fixed assets5.1. Depreciation

"This is an authoritative work which deserves to be read widely. Readers with accounting backgrounds who do not regard themselves as historians or even as interested in history will gain from it unexpected insights into the present state of corporate financial reporting and how it evolved, or, to echo Anthony Hopwood’s memorable phrase ‘how accounting became what it was not’." — Geoffrey Whittington (2020), Cambridge Centre for Finance, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, appearing in Accounting and Business Research.