• Offered for Year: 2022/23

• Module Leader(s): Professor David McCollum-Oldroyd
• Lecturer: Mr Ranald Michie

• Owning School: Newcastle University Business School
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Aims

To gain a critical understanding of the relationship between accounting and the wider economic, social, institutional and political contexts in which it exists.

Outline Of Syllabus

Themes in the history of global accounting and finance:

Semester 1:

Accounting History, what, why and how? Focusing on the origins of property rights and accounting in prehistory as well as modern-day interpretations of prehistoric gender roles.

Is accounting in a perpetual state of transformation? Focusing on the management of the monetary system and empire in Rome c.100 BC-AD 100

Accounting and societal decay and regeneration. Focusing on Anglo-Saxon England c.400-1066

Economic determinism v. causal complexity as explanations of accounting change. Focusing on medieval estates c.1200-1400

User needs as drivers of accounting change. Focusing on English mercantile accounting in the mid-1500s

Defining modernity in accounting. Focusing on early industrial accounting on landed estates on Tyneside in the 18th century

Value Neutrality in accounting: Focusing on Black African Slavery in the British West Indies

Accounting’s contracting role. Focusing on the reconstruction following the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery

Accounting and the launch of new technological enterprise: Focusing on the Stephenson Company and the early railway industry in the 1830s and 40s

Accounting and morality. Focusing on the Victorian urban poor

Accounting and social control. Focusing on household management guides in the Victorian and Edwardian eras

Silences in accounting. Focusing on the Nazi Holocaust

Does accounting progress? Focusing on the evolution of financial accounting c.1900 to the present day


Semester 2:

Global Finance in Historical Perspective: Trends and Events

Financial Centres: Location

Financial Centres: London as a financial centre

Financial Centres: Markets and Banks

Financial Crises: Banks: A UK/USA comparison

Financial Crises: World War 1 and the Wall Street Crash

Financial Crises: The Global Financial Crisis and the Pandemic

Financial Regulation: Self-Discipline

Financial Regulation: State Intervention

Financial Regulation: Government Control

Global Finance since 1970: Retrospect and Prospect

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures materials introduce the course material to students which they develop in seminars and on-line discussion boards and live drop-in sessions. Students are given a programme of supplementary reading, and are encouraged to read around the subject as widely as possible.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams

Other Assessment

Formative Assessments

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The combination of formal examination and assessed essay tests the students' intended knowledge and skills learning outcomes.

In the case of an alternative semester 2 assessment (worth 50% of the overall module mark) being necessary due to circumstances, the module leader will in the first instance consult with the DPD as to the requirements of the professional accrediting body to discuss possible acceptable alternatives. In 2020/21 this alternative was a 24 hour take home exam delivered online, and it is envisioned that if circumstances do not allow a present-in-person timed exam at the end of semester 2, and the professional body agrees, than this may well be an example of the type of alternative assessment which could be put in place.

Reading Lists

• ACC3018's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• ACC3018's Timetable