INTERNAL AUDIT AT THE HISTORICAL HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY: A CHALLENGE TO ACCEPTED HISTORY

Abstract

The accepted history of managerial internal audit is that its origins are in financial and compliance auditing. Managerial was added after firms started to expand geographically or into other businesses. That expansion increased complexity and created problems for managers which the internal auditor assisted in solving with managerial audits. Contrary to that two stage development, something comparable to managerial internal audit was being practiced by the Hudson's Bay Company in the form of inspections as early as 1871. Rather than in financial and compliance auditing, these inspections had their geneses in the desire of the senior manager and the committee (board of directors) for additional information on the fur trade and retail operations. This paper will describe the inspection function at the historical Hudson's Bay Company, the circumstances leading to the development of this function, and how it complemented other controls.

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