'laissez-faire'.15 He argues that double-entry bookkeeping and its ability to calcu
late profits could fulfil two requirements of early joint-stock companies: justify
ing dividend payments, and informing absentee owners (shareholders) about the
state of the company. The profit and loss account only gained significant impor
tance in the 19th century, as joint-stock companies with their increasing influence
shaped accounting standards.16
The main argument by Chiapello is that, historically, accounting has helped
to conceptualize what is now understood to be 'capitalism; based on the struc
tures in accounting language. However, there is no convincing evidence that dou
ble-entry bookkeeping was essential in creating the phenomenon of capitalism in
the early modern world.17 Bruce Carruthers and Wendy Nelson Espeland argue
that the use of double-entry bookkeeping has primarily served the function of
rhetorically legitimizing business ventures, also refuting the traditional view that
accounting is only a technical tool to make 'rational decisions. In addition, Carru
thers and Espeland explain that accounting is essential in structuring our thinking
and conceptualizing business activities.18
The MCC, a long-distance trading company on Walcheren, which after 1730
specialized in the Transatlantic slave trade, provides a case for analysis. The MCC
archive with its detailed and important documentation of the slave trade is fully
digitized and part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Some histo
rians have assessed the economic impact and profitability of the company based
on the financial records in the MCC archive. For instance, Corrie Reinders Fol-
mer-van Prooijen and later Gerhard de Kok have made estimations of the eco
nomic activity, and impact of the company.19
Koen van der Blij
171
15 Basil Yamey, Diversity in Mercantile Accounting in Western Europe, 1300-1800. In: T.E. Cooke
and C.W. Nobes (eds), The Development of Accounting in an international Context: A Fest
schrift in honour of R.H. Parker. London, 1997, 12-29, 24.
16 Basil Yamey, Some Topics in the History of Financial Accounting in England, 1500-1900. In:
W.T. Baxter and Sidney Davidson (eds.), Studies in Accounting. Andover, 1977, 11-34, 25-26.
17 Chiapello, Accounting, 264.
18 Bruce Carruthers and Wendy Nelson Espeland, Accounting for Rationality: Double-Entry
Bookkeeping and the Rhetoric of Economic Rationality. In: American Journal of Sociology, 97:1
(1991), 31-69, 63-64.
19 Corrie Reinders Folmer-Van Prooijen, Van goederenhandel naar slavenhandel: de Middel
burgse Commercie Compagnie 1720-1755. Middelburg, 2000, 153-159; Gerhard de Kok, Cursed
Capital: the Economic Impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on Walcheren around 1770. In:
TSEG/Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 13:3 (2016), 1-27, 16; The newest
book by Gerhard de Kok, Walcherse ketens: de trans-Atlantische slavenhandel en de economie
van Walcheren, 1755-1780, was not yet published at the time of writing.
