The beginnings of accounting for capital consumption: disclosure practices in the British railway industry, 1830–55

Abstract

Accounting for capital consumption has been one of the most vexed issues in the history of financial reporting. The early railway companies, whose ability to exploit the commercial opportunities available to them required unprecedented levels of capital expenditure, provided the first real arena for the development of possible solutions to the problem. Although accounting practices in the industry were subject to little regulation, some writers have asserted the existence of regularities in depreciation and replacement accounting practices (possibly driven by economic self-interest), although the evidential basis for these assertions has been slight. This paper provides the first assessment of the capital consumption accounting practices of companies in the railway industry, and of their regularities and patterns of change during the period 1830–55. to be derived from a substantial empirical base.

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