Accounting and profession

the evolution of the profession of Certified Public Accountant, and the eductional institutions of accounting in Argentina (1794 - 1960). Particular aspects of Patagonia

Abstract

The accounting profession in Argentina has undergone major changes. Since the last years of the eighteenth century, when the need of a specific instruction in accounting to people who were to work in commerce and public administration was foreseen, through the simple accounting practices certified by specific tests during the nineteenth century, until the regulation of standards of qualifications allowing its exercise in the mid-twentieth century. This evolution goes hand in hand with the economic changes the country went through, especially since the 1860s, that enhanced the development of institutions dedicated to teaching accounting. It is evident that in order to understand the evolution of the profession, it is necessary to review how the accounting education has evolved.

While internationally there are bibliographic material witnessing the evolution of the institutions dedicated to teaching accounting, it is recognized by historians themselves in Argentina a vacuum research in this subject, which is more evident when speaking about the university level. As well, few materials about the evolution of the profession have been found, despite having a strong regulation and being highly considered in the argentine society.

Hence, this paper seeks to understand the evolution of the accounting profession and the study of accounting in Argentina between the last years of the eighteenth century and the mid-twentieth century, a period which might be seen as very long but it is justified through the vacuums in the research of the subject that have been found. A specific treatment of the special conditions of the profession practice in argentine Patagonia has been made and particularly in Comodoro Rivadavia3 city, due to their characteristics of isolation and late population settlement.

In order to achieve the goal proposed, a revision of the bibliographic material that could be found has been made. Web sites of the educative institutions, pioneers in accounting teaching have been consulted, as well as those of the regulatory bodies of the professional activity. In the case of the particular aspects of the profession in Comodoro Rivadavia, the technique of personal interview to relevant informants has been applied.

It is the purpose to contribute to diminishing the gaps in the research of accounting studies and the evolution of the profession warned by historians, as well as to put into consideration new research lines suggested by this paper, that can be explored in the future.