Critical Perspectives on Accounting
Volume 20, Issue 6, 2009, Pages 701-715

Institutionalisation of control and accounting for bonded labour in colonial plantations: A historical analysis (Article)

Alawattage C.* , Wickramasinghe D.
  • a University of Aberdeen Business School, Edward Wright Building, Dunbar St., Aberdeen, AB24 3QY, United Kingdom
  • b Manchester Group of Accounting and Finance, Manchester Business School, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper offers a historical analysis of control and accounting for bonded labour relations in the 19th century colonial plantations in British Ceylon. The case illustrates the institutional evolution of colonial accountability and control systems, and the forms of accounting embedded therein. The notion of historical institutionalism is used to illuminate (1) how control systems were constructed in a path-dependent manner, (2) what particular accounting practices were institutionalised and (3) what roles they played in such circumstances. As the case reports, accounting practices in this context tended to be idiosyncratic due to historically specific and path-dependent material circumstances. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

Labour control Historical materialism Sri Lankan tea plantations Control accountability post-colonialism Bonded labour relations Historical institutionalism Accounting Institutional paternalism

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-69249214118&doi=10.1016%2fj.cpa.2009.02.001&partnerID=40&md5=a3d6c51757da85633895170cc6ee9b2b
DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2009.02.001
ISSN: 10452354
Cited by: 13
Original Language: English