The role of the state in the development of accounting in the Portuguese-Brazilian Empire, 1750-1822

Abstract

This paper explores the role of the state in the development of accounting in the Portuguese-Brazilian Empire (1750-1822) in the context of economic and political transformations. In this period, the interrelations of accounting and the state were central to understanding accounting change in Portugal and Brazil. Through control of accounting education, organization of the accounting occupation, rules of corporate governance, and governmental accounting itself, governments adopted accounting technologies in an effort to shape and normalize decisions in order to achieve desirable objectives for the empire. This was particularly so during the reigns of D. José I and D. João VI: the former was responsible for initiatives to improve control over and connect the empire, including the spread of use of double-entry bookkeeping in the Portuguese metropolis; the latter was responsible for initiatives to achieve the same ends once the metropolis moved to Brazil. This paper uses primary and secondary sources to present and contrast those initiatives and the reasoning behind them.