Accounting, publicity and class conflict in Victorian Britain
研究了维多利亚时代英国一家煤矿与钢铁公司如何利用会计信息操纵劳资关系，通过福利设施和限制工人获取会计信息来管理劳动力，同时向股东展示雇主关怀形象。
This paper studies the role of publicly available accounting information in class conflict between capital and labour in Victorian Britain. The company investigated – the Staveley Coal & Iron Company Ltd – is one of the earliest industrial enterprises registered under the Companies Act 1862. The period studied is 1863, when the company was incorporated, through to 1900 by which time the workforce comprised approximately 6400 colliery and iron workers. The history of the company is contextualised in two ways. First, by positioning it within the coal and iron industry in terms of market share, size and profitability. Second, by locating Staveley’s labour management policies within relevant contemporary economic theory. It is then revealed, through an in-depth study of the company’s archives, that the directors sought to manage and manipulate the workforce through the provision of welfare facilities and by denying worker access to accounting information relevant for wage bargaining purposes. The study also unveils the directors’ report as an instrument deployed to project the image of a caring employer and to explain, to its shareholders, the sound business sense of committing resources for that purpose.