The Lawrence Manufacturing Co.: a note on early cost accounting in US textile mills

Abstract

This paper scrutinizes the Lawrence Manufacturing Co. accounts in the 1840s and challenges the inferences that have been drawn in previous literature both about the degree of sophistication of cost accounting practice that the accounts of such textile mills exhibit during this period and about their use for management purposes. The accounting computations have previously been taken as evidence that a modern managerial approach was already being adopted in manufacturing contexts, for the purpose of developing a regime of cost control and performativity within the factory. This paper suggests that they have a different explanation: as calculations made for classic mercantile purposes, in order to track flows of money spent and received in manufacturing. It thereby contributes to a debate in which Yamey has been a leading figure, concerning the dangers of anachronism when considering the accounting practices of earlier times, and the importance of allowing modern intent in such accounting only after the most stringent scrutiny of the evidence.

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