The beginnings of official accounting education in Oporto: interpretive insights into the "how" and the "why" of the creation of the Oporto School of Commerce, 1803

• Miguel Gonçalves ^[1] ; Maria da Conceição Marques ^[1]
  1. [1] Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra

     Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra

     Coimbra (Sé Nova), Portugal

     
• Localización: Creando nuevas oportunidades en un entorno de incertidumbre. Creating new opportunities in an uncertain environment: XXVI Congreso anual AEDEM. Universidad de Barcelona, 5, 6 y 7 de junio de 2012 / coord. por Anna María Gil Lafuente, 2012, ISBN 978-84-7356-853-1
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper introduces to the English-language accounting history literature the Oporto School of Commerce which was established in Oporto in 1803. It aims to contribute to understand how and why accounting education was created in the second biggest city of the Kingdom of Portugal at the Royal Academy of the Navy and Commerce of Oporto, in which the School of Commerce was integrated. Despite the increasing importance given by literature to the study of the Lisbon School of Commerce (1759), there has been little documentation of how and why accounting teaching has emerged in other Portuguese cities. This article seeks to assist the process of filling this void. It responds to calls by Anderson-Gough (2009: p. 313) for more “historical investigation of education in accounting in various times and places”. Thus, this paper adopts adifferent point of view, redirecting attention to another commercial area besides the capital of Portugal – the city of Oporto in the early 19th century. The article aims to answer two questions of investigation: (1) how did the Oporto School of Commerce emerged, in 1803?; and (2) what were the reasons behind its emergence? In order to do so, a research model was adopted which clarified ten theoretical and philosophical assumptions of the researchers. Importantly, the paper uses interpretative research as research paradigm; qualitative research as research methodology; and documental sources (texts and documents) as research method. Our two questions of investigation - how did it happen?, and why did it happen? - are consistent with Yin’s (2003) observations, when the author notes that the two most frequent issues that an historical research should fulfil regards to the how did it happen? and the why did it happen? questions. We concluded that a joint stock chartered company named General Company of Agriculture of Upper Douro Vineyards (1756) functioned as a pressure agent playing a determinant role which ultimately lead to organizational change. This process is described in literature as mimetic isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983, 1991), since the Oporto organization would be forced to adopt similar systems and structures that were used in the Lisbon School of Commerce. On the other hand, we also concluded that: (1) the city of Oporto in matters of higher studies was totally forgotten by the government; (2) it was rare to find in Oporto someone that new the double entry bookkeeping system: (3) the by-laws of the Oporto School of Commerce referred that those who graduated from the School would be admitted in the accounts department (counting house) of the General Company of Agriculture of Upper Douro Vineyards; (4) it was the economic needs of the commercial bourgeoisie living in the Oporto area that were behind the creation of the Oporto School of Commerce; (5) geographical aspects (distance from the capital, lack of communication routes) led to the emergence of the Oporto School of Commerce; (6) possibly political aspects were responsible for the delay of the institutionalization of the School of Commerce in Oporto. However, it should be noted as a limitation of our investigation that this last hypothesis needs more support in the existing literature.The paper’s originality is related to the lack of studies conducted in Portuguese accounting history education, besides the ones discussing the Lisbon School of Commerce (1759). We believe there is an area of knowledge that is not properly clarified in the literature – the commercial and accounting institutional establishments located in Oporto in the 19th century. In fact, the Portuguese studies about accounting and commercial education are very rare, except those regarding the Lisbon School of Commerce (1759). To sum up, the study seeks to contribute to the development of knowledge associated with the history of accounting education in Portugal, showing the role of the Oporto School of Commerce (1803) as a public education establishment wherein accounting would be free learned. In particular, the work improves the understanding of how and why did official accounting education emerged in the city of Oporto, at the entrance of the 19th century. It is intended that the systematization presented on some aspects of the Oporto School can contribute to the diversification of the Portuguese accounting history literature