From moral evaluation to rationalization: accounting and the shifting technologies of cred

Description
The purpose of this essay is to stimulate an examination of the nature of consumer credit and accounting’s role in its
techniques of operation. The site of this examination is the US department store of the 1920/1930s. Our study,
informed by Foucauldian concepts of disciplinary power and governmentality, reveals that a new mode of record
keeping played a decisive role in the creation of an alternative to local knowledge in the granting of credit.

From moral evaluation to rationalization:
accounting and the shifting technologies of credit
Ingrid Jeacle
a,
*, Eamonn J. Walsh
b
a
Accounting Group, School of Management, University of Edinburgh, William Robertson Building,
George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JY, UK
b
Department of Accountancy, University College Dublin, Bel?eld, Dublin 4, Ireland
Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to stimulate an examination of the nature of consumer credit and accounting’s role in its
techniques of operation. The site of this examination is the US department store of the 1920/1930s. Our study,
informed by Foucauldian concepts of disciplinary power and governmentality, reveals that a new mode of record
keeping played a decisive role in the creation of an alternative to local knowledge in the granting of credit. This man-
ifested itself in new accounting techniques, particularly, the analysis of age-based accounts receivable. #2002 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Accounting control; Accounting history; Consumer credit; Controllers; Credit control; Department store; Foucault; Retail
history; Retail management
1. Introduction
Scholars of accounting and the social have, his-
torically, tended to focus upon the individual as
producer rather than as consumer. The pre-
occupation with the role of producer is evident
elsewhere in the human sciences. Consumption
received insu?cient attention, Featherstone (1991,
preface) argues, as it was ‘‘designated as deriva-
tive, peripheral and feminine, as against the cen-
trality which was accorded to the more masculine
sphere of production and the economy’’. The very
notion of an ‘Industrial Revolution’ re?ects a pre-
occupation with supply-side issues (McKendrick,
Brewer, & Plumb, 1982). This fascination with the
world of production entirely eclipsed other aspects
of the history of modernity, a history in which
consumption may play a central part (Bauman,
1992). Appleby (1993, p. 162) articulates these
concerns:
. . . why has the opportunity to consume been
made dependent morally upon the opportu-
nity to produce, but functionally upon the
opportunity to purchase? I can think of no
other human predisposition so essential to
economic growth which has been so per-
versely treated. Why is it, to put the question
in more total terms, that consumption, which
is the linchpin of our modern social system,
has never been the linchpin of our theories of
modernity?
0361-3682/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PI I : S0361- 3682( 02) 00015- 6
Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
www.elsevier.com/locate/aos
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-131-6508339; fax: +44-
131-6508337.
E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Jeacle).
However, the last decade has witnessed a resur-
gence of interest in the study of consumption in
the human sciences (Bocock, 1993; Campbell,
1991; Miller, 1995; Saunders, 1988). This resur-
gence appears to be due to the centrality of a
consumption aesthetic in discourses of the post-
modern and a strong sense that the experience of
modernity may be intertwined with both con-
sumption and production. Within discourses of
the post-modern, consumption is identi?ed as ‘‘a
realm of social action, interaction and experience
which increasingly structures the everyday prac-
tices of urban people’’ (Falk & Campbell, 1997,
p. 1). Shopping ‘‘is the twentieth century Amer-
ican hobby’’ (Freund, 1982, p. 110): leisure activ-
ities and the ‘work’ of consumption take place in
‘‘new consumption sites’’ (Shields, 1992, p. 6). The
mall is a central component of contemporary
experience (Langman, 1992). These discourses
emphasise consumption as a key element of the
Western sense of self. Consumption nurtures indi-
vidualism(Bocock, 1993; Piore, 1995) and shopping
becomes ‘‘not merely the acquisition of things: it is
the buying of identity’’ (Clammer, 1992, p. 195).
Our paper is an attempt to broaden the notion
of the social to incorporate the world of the con-
sumer. Past failure to address this vital aspect of
the social has denied accounting scholars an
opportunity to identify appropriate theoretical
perspectives on the relationship between account-
ing and the social. To this end we examine
accounting technique in the department store, an
established icon of Western consumer culture. The
paper explores the emergence of accounting tech-
nologies in the control of mass credit facilities
within the department store during the early dec-
ades of the twentieth century. Consumer credit
represents a key point of intersection between the
dual character of the individual as both producer
and consumer.
1
If opportunities to produce, pur-
chase and consume are inter-related, then consumer
credit represents an important element of that
relationship. Moreover, consumer credit may
operate both as a bu?er between production and
consumption and ensure the governance of a dis-
ciplined individual.
Our paper invokes Foucault’s notion of dis-
ciplinary power. Foucault’s genealogical investi-
gations have been of signi?cant interest to
accounting academics.
2
Foucault is concerned
with the way in which power, knowledge and the
body inter-relate. In Discipline and Punish (Fou-
cault, 1979) he examines the prison as one site ‘‘for
diagnosing power-relationships which infect man’s
body’’ (Stewart, 1992, p. 62). Foucault traces the
shift from what he regarded as ‘traditional’ to
‘disciplinary’ modes of domination: from bodily
torture to more subtle forms of institutional pun-
ishment. Through hierarchical observation,
knowledge of the body and power over it become
intertwined (Foucault, 1979, p. 170). Each prison
inmate holds an assigned position arranged to
facilitate his surveillance; each individual becomes
located in time and space around whom records
are kept and evaluations made. The consequent
visibility of each individual allows identi?cation of
the deviant while at the same time normalizes the
rest of the population (Foucault, 1979, p. 177).
Foucault’s work however has wider implications
beyond the prison walls. Viewed as an instrument
of power-knowledge, accounting has a signi?cant
surveillance role within the organisation. The role
is often unintended, such as the discovery of the
unsavoury dealings of the head clerk in Josiah
Wedgwood’s pottery during the late eighteenth
century following the construction of an account-
ing system to examine costs (Hopwood, 1987). We
?nd the Foucauldian concept of power-knowledge
can be usefully employed in our study. We exam-
ine how new modes of record keeping created
alternatives to local knowledge in the management
of consumer credit. These new modes centred on
the construction of a numbered and de?ned space
for each credit customer via the charge card and
the subsequent monitoring of deviations from
normal payment patterns via a rigorous analysis
1
Shaoul (1992) is a pioneering attempt to deal with this
issue. Our study di?ers in two important respects. First, we
incorporate accounting directly into our narrative. Second, by
adopting an historical approach, we avoid a focus upon the
consumer as a readymade phenomenon.
2
The work of Hopwood (1987), Hoskin and Macve (1986,
1988), Loft (1986) and Miller and O’Leary (1987), are promi-
nent examples of this approach.
738 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
of the debtors’ ledger. The age-based debtor bal-
ance is not only an accounting number but also a
form of human accountability. Revealing the
actions of each individual, accounting creates vis-
ibilities within the credit nexus.
We begin by identifying the role of local knowl-
edge in the maintenance of a credit nexus. The
nature of this local knowledge was such that it was
embodied in individuals rather than institutions.
For this reason, larger retailers were unable to
participate in the credit nexus and avoided the
problem by limiting the credit facilities o?ered to
customers. However, as Section 3 explores, the
advent of mass credit facilities during the early
decades of the twentieth century prompted
department stores to abandon traditional cash
only trading. Section 4 examines the subsequent
sustained attempts by department stores to render
credit knowledge mobile. These attempts mani-
fested themselves in a rich network of specialised
credit bureaux and the emergence of a specialist
‘profession’, credit men. Nevertheless, these e?orts
?oundered as they were based upon a knowledge
of individual character and morality, a mode of
knowing that was neither stable nor combinable.
Section 5 explores the emergence of a solution
grounded in accounting technique. It involved a
portable, stable identity (known today as a credit
card) and a parallel set of individual records that
was quite literally a pack of cards, the unit record.
The analysis of age-based accounts receivable
represented but one potential way to shu?e these
cards. These new forms of knowledge permitted a
focus upon consumer behaviour rather than the
character of the individual. Credit control adopted
disciplinary proportions, classifying and monitor-
ing the credit customer according to deviations
from norms of payment behaviour (Foucault,
1979). The concluding section considers how the
analysis is also suggestive of an understanding of
consumer credit based upon governmentality
(Foucault, 1988).
2. Local knowledge and credit
Credit is not a new phenomenon. Agricultural
economies appear to have developed long standing
elaborate networks of credit based upon commu-
nal responsibility and reciprocity. These webs of
credit appear to have been an important force in
the maintenance of existing social relationships
(Emmet & Jeuck, 1950; Walsh & Stewart, 1990).
Personal knowledge of each customer’s character
and status within the community determined the
extension and restriction of credit facilities. Intel-
ligence gathering and con?dence took priority
over the recording of the customer’s outstanding
debt while social obligation and the threat of
social censure was a powerful self-disciplining
mechanism. Nugent (1939, p. 48) notes that US
retail merchants before the Civil War ‘‘merely
recorded’’ the purchases of account customers. No
‘‘formal promise’’ existed between the two parties
as to the nature of the repayment pattern, rather
an expectation existed that full settlement would
ultimately be achieved (National Retail Merchants
Association, 1969). Coleman (1974, p. 273) ?nds
that in the ante-bellum USA, ‘reputation’ deter-
mined access to credit, while Rappaport (1993)
also emphasises the primacy of personal relation-
ships in the informal credit systems of nineteenth
century London stores. Therefore, personal, local
knowledge was a necessary condition for credit.
With the advent of larger retail establishments
in cities during the late nineteenth century, perso-
nal knowledge became di?cult and impractical to
acquire. ‘‘The growth of the market and physical
separation of work place and home disrupted this
system by depersonalising relations between buyer
and seller’’ (Rappaport, 1993, p. 96). Merchants
responded to the risk posed by a lack of personal
knowledge of each customer by shifting to a cash
only basis of trading and refusing to grant credit.
‘‘Cash allowed for impersonal transactions which
carried no risk for the seller.’’ (ibid., p. 144).
Similarly, Santink (1990, p. 26) describes a Cana-
dian merchant in the 1850s who ‘‘as a new arrival
on the business scene in Toronto, he was com-
pelled to operate very largely on a cash basis’’.
Merchants sought to sway public opinion in
favour of cash trading by highlighting the poten-
tially lower prices resulting from the use of ready
money (Adburgham, 1964; Alexander, 1970).
However, despite these attempts to operate
entirely in a cash nexus, stores were generally obliged
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 739
to grant credit to their most loyal customers. The
provision of such informal credit facilities had
come to symbolise the quality store. Charge privi-
leges were extended to wealthier customers in
order to attract a ‘high status’ clientele (Alex-
ander, 1970; Rappaport, 1993). Ironically, it was
such privileged customers who often exploited the
system by taking extensive credit over long time
periods. The extent of long term credit taken by
customers is illustrated in the records of one Mas-
sachusetts department store.
3
The account book
of customer C. L. Hayward with the store W. & A.
Bacon shows periods of credit ranging from 6
months to 1 year. Despite the high cost to stores
of overdue credit, interest charges on overdue
accounts were unusual (The Credit World, 1930, p.
21; Weinhold, 1930).
In the main however, credit was assiduously
avoided. Instead, stores sought to build customer
loyalty by creating banking departments within
the store. During this period, banking institutions
did not ?nance the purchase of consumer goods
and retailers were therefore the main providers of
consumer credit (Bartlett, Williams, Adcock, &
Moore, 1978; Leach, 1993; Olney, 1991). Custo-
mers were encouraged to deposit money that
could be withdrawn for required purchases. ‘‘One
of the main objects of requiring deposits from
customers in excess of the amount of purchases
made is to relieve the store from bad debt losses’’
(Eggleston, 1931, p. 143). Hotchkin (1925, p. 185)
advises merchants to introduce customer deposit
accounts as a solution to the collection problem
and enthusiastically recounts the popularity of
such a plan amongst store customers. The man-
agement of Macy’s department store in New York,
long standing advocates of cash only trading,
eagerly proposed the deposit account as a substitute
for credit facilities. Following a customer request
for a credit account, management responded:
We beg to acknowledge receipt of your
favour of the 8th inst., addressed to Mr. Bro-
hel, and to say to you in reply that according
to our system and method of doing business it
is impossible for us to open an account with
anyone. We constantly make the statement
that we sell goods for cash only, and as you
can readily see, we could not, in any instance,
violate this rule. Did we have charge accounts
with anyone, we would be pleased indeed to
have your name on our books. The only
method by which goods can be ordered with-
out such order being accompanied by cash is
to place an amount on deposit with us and
then order goods, which may be charged
against this deposit.
4
In conclusion, local knowledge appears to have
been a precondition for credit. In the absence of
local knowledge, larger stores generally insisted
upon cash with the exception of the a?uent cus-
tomer and the use of in-store banking facilities.
Smaller stores continued to be a part of a local
nexus of credit and Fraser (1981) argues that it
was the ability to o?er credit which ensured the
survival of smaller stores in the United Kingdom.
3. Mass credit
During the early years of the twentieth century
the USA experienced a consumer credit boom
(Grant, 1992). Commentators during the period
found it phenomenal:
In the present generation America is dis-
covering mass ?nance . . . The working masses
of the world’s population–the men and
women who streamed into factories and
shops in the morning and out again at
night—have been thought of in the past pri-
marily as producers. Today they are being
vizualized more as consumers: as business
men or women in their own right . . . With
this discovery has come a realization that the
masses, like other business concerns, need
credit. (Clark, 1930, pp. 1–4).
3
Archival records of W & A Bacon 1864–1869, Mss: 776,
H427, Historical Collections, Baker Library, Harvard Business
School.
4
Letter dated 12 August 1902, Box 2, Folder 1, 1050,
Macy’s Archives, Historical Collections, Baker Library, Har-
vard Business School.
740 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
Nugent (1939, p. 92) reports a doubling of con-
sumer credit in the USA between 1923 and 1929,
while instalment selling increased dramatically
during this period (Noah, 1926; Seidman, 1957).
The growth in consumer credit was closely inter-
twined with the increased availability of consumer
durable goods (Olney, 1991). Hire purchase of
consumer durables had commenced with the
invention of the Singer sewing machine in 1856
(Harris & Seldon, 1958), but the practice was
con?ned to a limited range of goods, primarily
sewing machines, pianos and furniture. The luxury
nature of these goods made their purchase on
credit more socially acceptable (Johnson, 1983).
The perception of instalment selling as dangerous,
evil and immoral was no doubt in?uenced by the
fact that it threatened existing class structures
(Co?n, 1994; Fraser, 1981). The advent of auto-
mobile ?nance companies, however, appears to
have acted as an important impetus for a dramatic
expansion in all types of hire purchase selling
(Zelch, 1934). Changing attitudes to the morality
of instalment selling also emerged (Clarke, 1939).
The old distinction between the traditional charge
account trade and the hire purchase trade was
becoming less relevant. The two lines of credit
were becoming tightly interdependent and inter-
related (Jones, 1927).
It is interesting to note that despite the fact that
both sides of the Atlantic experienced a burgeon-
ing of consumer credit and consumer durables
from the 1920s onwards, it appears that the pace
of change may have di?ered between the two
continents. Reports prepared by the International
Association of Department Stores
5
(IADS) [Doc.
No. 151 (1935a) and 61 (1955)] remark upon the
higher proportion of credit trade carried on in the
USA relative to Europe.
Merchants came to realise that liberal credit
facilities were a major selling force in the retail
trade (Hotchkin, 1925; Woodlock, 1925). Leach
(1993) documents this trend and points out that
Marshall Fields (Chicago department store) had
180,000 charge accounts by the late 1920s. Sears,
Roebuck & Co. decided to cautiously introduce
credit facilities for the ?rst time in 1910. By 1917,
its policy had changed dramatically and ‘‘the per-
iod 1917–1921 was known as the ‘No Money
Down’ era. Credit was extended liberally, with a
minimum of investigation.’’ (Emmet & Jeuck,
1950, p. 268). Similar trends are evident in the
UK. Prior to 1885, Harrods employed a cash only
trading policy (Adburgham, 1964). However, by
1926 the store was conducting 80% of its business
on a credit basis.
6
Credit facilities not only cap-
tured new customers, they cemented the relation-
ship between existing customers and the store
(IADS, 1933, Doc.99; IADS, 1935b, Doc. 167;
Leach, 1993).
Some insight into how the department store
initially managed this expanded credit customer
base can be gleaned from Gayton (1929, p. 148):
Our credit department had been using a
memory method up to that time [1922] and
when a charge slip came to the o?ce for
authorization, the cashier, if she did not know
of her own memory, would call out ‘‘Any one
know about Mrs. John Doe on Halleck
Street’’, someone in the o?ce would answer
‘‘yes, O.K.’’
By the late 1920s this store had implemented ‘‘a
scienti?c credit system’’ with the ‘‘use of written
records against memory methods’’ and ‘‘scienti?c
as against hunch methods’’ (ibid.). This store is
illustrative of a general trend. Whilst the exact
nature and timing of this transition from ‘hunch’
to ‘science’ is di?cult to establish
7
, it is possible to
identify two distinct shifts in the department
store’s management of consumer credit. In the fol-
lowing two sections, we examine the institutional
mechanisms and techniques that permitted the
emulation and subsequent substitution of local
5
The International Association of Department Stores
(IADS), A Society for Management Research, was established
in Paris in 1928 (Pasdermadjian, 1950, p. 1). Among its activ-
ities it carried out research on all aspects of retail management.
6
Report by Mr Allan Hepworth on Harrods Counting
House Methods presented at the Retail Research Association
Store Owners Conference, Harrods, 1926, 22–29 May, Harrods
Archives.
7
Generally occurring earlier in the USA than in Europe and
at di?erent times amongst individual stores throughout the
USA and Europe.
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 741
knowledge during this period. Section 4 explores
the ?rst identi?able wave of change which was an
attempt to replicate traditional forms of local
knowledge but on a mass basis. Reliance on the
information gathering services of external and/or
in house credit reporting o?ces replaced manage-
ment’s personal knowledge of the credit applicant.
Essentially however, the character of the knowl-
edge was identical to previous eras, any di?erence
lying only in its more systematised means of
delivery. Section 5 examines the second wave of
transition. Accounting numbers, rigorously docu-
mented and analysed in debtors receivable,
become the ?nal substitute for personal knowledge
in the credit process.
4. Systematising local knowledge
4.1. Credit networks
A sophisticated network emerged to accumulate
and disseminate the knowledge requirements
necessary to sustain mass credit account applica-
tion. The most signi?cant elements of this network
were credit reporting agencies, credit o?ces in
stores and a nascent ‘profession’ of credit men.
These elements combined to provide a rich source
of information to department stores that emulated
local knowledge.
Credit reporting agencies largely followed the
precedents that had been set by commercial credit
reporting since the 1840s in the US. By 1918, there
were 300 credit reporting bureaux in the US and
by 1925, 1400 (Truesdale, 1927). These bureaux
compiled credit guides (frequently for 10,000 indi-
viduals) and provided collection services. They
also provided employment information to ensure
that the ‘dishonest and incompetent’ would
remain unemployed (Truesdale, 1927). The credit
bureau o?ered an all embracing knowledge of an
individual’s payment behaviour gathered from the
experiences of several merchants. No longer could
an applicant hide past credit o?ences by o?ering
only good references to the merchant (Eggleston,
1931; Walter, 1922). The all-seeing bureau had
access to the complete picture. Buckeridge (1927,
p. 7) remarks: ‘‘the applicant always gives the
names of ?rms he pays promptly and neglects to
mention those he owes, and which information is
in the Bureau ?les.’’ The bureau provided man-
agement with the power of observation (Foucault,
1979, p. 170).
Credit o?ces also emerged within department
stores to grant credit and monitor collection
activity. Generally, these credit o?ces were
encouraged to actively pursue new accounts as
well as checking on the account status of current
charge customers (Hotchkin, 1925).
The ?nal institutional strand involved the emer-
gence of a ‘profession’ of credit men. The secretary
of the National Association of Credit Men
addressed delegates attending the 1925 Con-
troller’s Congress
8
of the National Retail Dry
Goods Association (NRDGA):
Our [Retail Credit Men’s National Associ-
ation] purpose is to bring together the retail
credit grantors of the country, large and
small, to organize and educate the retail
credit man in the possibilities of his job and in
the development of his position. We hope to
make the retail credit granters of the country
professional credit men. (Woodlock, p. 60.)
Professionalisation was perceived to be linked to
the acquisition of scienti?c knowledge and skilled
training (Gamlen, 1926; Guernsey, 1932). Apart
from professional status, the creation of a national
association ensured a basis for the development of
a network for exchanging information across state
lines (Truesdale, 1927).
4.2. Local knowledge revisited
However, the important issue is the nature of
the information gathered by the credit man.
E?ectively, it still involved a focus on the char-
acter of the borrower.
Most of the information secured by credit
bureaux was from personal observation (Blocker,
8
The Controllers Congress was the annual convention of
department store controllers. The congress was a division of the
US National Retail Dry Goods Association—one of the largest
trade associations in the USA.
742 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
1927) and the co-operation of merchants.
9
Early
reports included the political a?liation, moral
standing and personal weaknesses (e.g. alcohol) of
the applicant (Hayes & Miller, 1994). Their
reports were generally of a qualitative nature, and
the classi?cation of individuals involved the
assignment of letter codes. Payment patterns
might be coded as (P)rompt, (F)air, (S)low and X.
There were also more elaborate schemes such as
the ?fteen categories used by the Omaha Credit
Bureau. Category M is ‘a chronic returner of
goods on approval crank’ (Greene, 1924, p. 171).
Although operating in a systematic fashion in
terms of gathering and processing of information,
essentially the bureaux retained a preoccupation
with character and social standing. For example,
Nystrom (1925, pp. 262–3) provides the following
description of the highly personalised nature of
the information gathered:
The credit man learns essential facts about
the customer’s family connections. For, no
matter how hard the circumstances may be
that surround a family, if there is a char-
acteristic pride in square dealing handed
down from the preceding generation, it is
almost certain that any obligation will be
faithfully kept to the letter.
It appears that the credit bureau sought to o?er
a moral purpose for its existence. Not just the
store but the entire community would bene?t from
the establishment of a bureau:
The mere existence of a well organized credit
bureau in a community will tend to raise the
moral standard of the whole community in
regards to paying bills. Even good paying
debtors become more careful. A well con-
ducted credit bureau is able to tell the grocer
how the debtor pays his butcher, his doctor,
and every other trade and profession that he
trades with, and each of these in turn is furn-
ished with the same kind of information from
the grocer and others. Thus the exact credit
standing of the debtor is established with the
entire trade of the city. (Hanes, 1915, p. 5.)
The in-house store credit o?ces evidence a
similar concern with the minutia of local knowl-
edge of the credit applicant. This is re?ected in the
following description by a store executive of the
era
10
:
Some stores have their own sta?s of investiga-
tors. They visit the neighborhood of the appli-
cants’ residence, size up the appearance of the
house and question local shopkeepers regarding
his standing. (Greene, 1924, pp. 168–9.)
Examination of the guidance pro?ered by wri-
ters of the period to the newly established store
credit men is insightful. Hagerty (1913) stresses the
importance of an adequate evaluation of the
character of the credit applicant, ranging from his
professional standing to his tendency to extra-
vagance. ‘‘In no division of credit does so much
depend on the character of the applicant as in
personal credit.’’ (ibid. p. 87). Phelps (1938, p. 57)
advocates the advantage of the interview in form-
ing a personal impression of the credit applicant:
. . . the interviewer will sometimes get a very
de?nite impression which may prove valuable
if recorded. For example, the prospective
customer may strike him very forcibly as
being ‘shifty,’ evasive,’ ‘argumentative,’
‘seedy appearance,’ ‘?ashy,’ ‘wife looks as if
she might be extravagant,’ and the like.
Leigh (1923, pp. 344–5) recommends an assess-
ment of the moral character of each applicant:
In taking an application for a charge account,
stores usually require information to establish
the customer’s ?nancial and moral basis for
credit . . . Speci?c information is necessary
regarding the character of the position which
9
The situation in the UK appears to have been similar.
Corina (1978, p. 88) explains how store owners in London
formed the Mutual Communication Society, the agents of
which gathered personal information on potential customers
which could then be used by any store member.
10
Personnel Director of Kaufmann Department Stores
(USA).
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 743
the customer or her husband holds . . . During
the credit interview, stores endeavour to
obtain other relevant information, such as
whether the applicant is a minor, whether the
wife lives separate from her husband, or whe-
ther there are any domestic di?culties
(emphasis added).
Similarly, Warren (1939, p. 66) advises an
assessment of the applicant’s ‘‘probable moral
strength, in endeavouring to pay under changed
circumstances’’.
The archival records of one department store
provide an insight into the practical operation of
such methods. Two ledgers detail the credit risk of
every account customer circa 1920s/1930s.
11
The
ledgers contain an alphabetic listing of customers,
the date at which credit facilities were sought and
a narrative on the personal circumstances of each
applicant. For example, an entry in 1925 contains
the following information on an applicant:
Was governess to Mrs K for her 2 sons, now
at school in Dublin. Miss G is staying with
Mrs K over 15 years and is now acting as
lady’s companion; drives Mrs K’s motor car,
and assists in her house. She is most respect-
able, and I think she has private means.
Not content with a simple examination of an
applicant’s moral character, department stores
also engaged in a ritual designed to educate the
borrower. It served the purpose of instilling, at an
early stage, future expectations of payment beha-
viour. The role of the credit man, in this regard,
was projected as one of service to the community:
. . . the central purpose of educating custo-
mers to pay promptly is that it gives him the
opportunity to make the ?nest possible con-
tribution to the lives of these people. By per-
sistently educating them to pay promptly, the
manager of credit sales is building character
and making happier and ?ner men and
women. It is this opportunity to play a de?nite
part in building and strengthening the char-
acter and moral fabric of hundreds or thou-
sands of people that raises his role above the
plane of a common job. (Phelps, 1938, p. 233.)
The National Retail Credit Association (USA)
projected itself as the driving force in the creation
of this credit worthy character. Their advertise-
ments e?ectively illustrate this point. For example,
a 1931 advertisement (Fig. 1) claims that articles
of jewellery engraved with the association emblem
provide the credit man with a useful opportunity
to educate the credit applicant (The Credit World,
1931, XIX, 11, p. 31). Other advertisements (Fig. 2)
actively encourage the social stigma of ‘‘QC’’,
questionable credit, associated with slow payment
of bills whilst at the same time depicting the
magical kingdom awaiting the prompt payer
(Phelps, 1938, p. 76).
The emphasis on character, morality and other
personal characteristics appears to pervade the
literature of the period. One may characterise this
era as one where writing replaced the memory of
the merchant. Yet, the credit process still involved
a very high degree of local knowledge—essentially
the knowledge obtained was unchanged, all that
had happened was a robust system of examination
in order to grade the customers. A more sig-
ni?cant change however, was to present itself in
the form of a rigorous analysis of the debtors’
record. The following section explores the
mechanisms behind the ?nal shift from moral
evaluation to rationalization, substitution of
accounting numbers for local knowledge in the
consumer credit process.
5. New modes of record keeping
A useful starting point for an understanding of
the key issues may be gleaned from a visit by a US
team
12
in 1926 to study operating methods in
Harrods department store, London. They were
dismayed by the system of accounting for retail
credit which confronted them:
11
Mc Bernies Department Store, Dublin, Irish National
Archives, ref.: G1/i. Further examples of such narratives are
provided in the Appendix.
12
Members of the Retail Research Association.
744 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
This is undoubtedly the worst thing that we
have seen in the Store, and would not be
found even in the smallest Store in the States
. . . The record of customers is kept in old
books and the person receiving a call must
run all over the entire room in order to ?nd
the particular book desired, and there are
probably over 100 books required. We did
not notice a single modern index system in the
entire o?ce, and we feel that this is inexcu-
sable. In every American Store you ?nd the
Rand or some similar index used in almost
every o?ce for some purpose. We would also
suggest the use of the coin or card system of
identi?cation and passing by signature of the
shopwalker of purchases under either £1 or £2
in value. We realise that this would involve
issuing of a large number of coins, but they
would not be in excess of the number used by
many Stores in the States, and would only be
issued to those customers whose credit was
unquestioned. It would also necessitate the
keeping of a numerical register in each section,
but this is done in all Stores in the States.
13
The two key points of their observations are the
abandonment of books in favour of separate phy-
sical records relating to each consumer (the unit
record) and a mobile system of individual identi?-
cation (the coin or card). These two techniques
intertwined with one another in order to create the
preconditions for new opportunities to recombine
the elements and to create modes of visibility that
no longer required the intimate analysis of the
customer’s character and morality.
5.1. The charge card
The charge card has facilitated free and easy
access to credit in Western consumer society (Rit-
zer, 1995, p. 6).
14
It has become ‘‘a new sign of
Fig. 1. Marketing tools of the National Retail Credit Associ-
ation Source: Reproduced from The Credit World, (1931, XIX,
11, p. 31).
13
Report presented by Mr. F. I. Liveright on the topic:
Counting House and Secretary’s O?ce, at the Retail Research
Association Store Owners Conference, Harrods, 1926, 22–29
May, pp. 4–5, Harrods Archives.
14
Retailers were the pioneers of charge accounts (National
Retail Merchants Association, 1969)—Diners Club, the ?rst
general charge card appeared in 1950.
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 745
Fig. 2. Social stigma of questionable credit. Source: Advertisement reproduced from Phelps (1938, p. 76).
746 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
status since high as the cost of borrowing may be,
a credit card (like the pawnbroker’s tickets of
earlier days!) indicates a certain creditworthi-
ness’’. (Tebbutt, 1983, p. 200.) The consumer’s
?exible friend plays another role however. The
charge coin and, subsequently the charge card
(Fig. 3), became a vital management tool in the
implementation of a systematized credit policy. By
ascribing an individual number to every account
customer, the coin/card acted as a simple identi?-
cation device for the expanding volume of charge
customers (Comstock, 1925; Leigh, 1923).
Fig. 3. Example of customer charge card circa 1930s. Source: Selfridges Department Store Archives (London).
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 747
The charge coin was a small an easily portable
numbered metal coin that the customer presented
when making a credit purchase. The number on
the coin was also used as the customer’s account
number in the store’s debtors ledger. These coins/
cards enabled the e?cient management of a far
greater number of customers and helped reduce
the possibility of individuals fraudulently charging
goods to a customer’s account (Clark, 1925).
Another perhaps unanticipated consequence of
the card was its own intrinsic value. For example,
the credit manager at Filene’s, Boston, found the
threat of repossession encouraged prompt pay-
ment (Bitner, 1934).
However, despite its many advantages, the coin/
card had one major disadvantage: the account
customer’s name and address were still manually
written up on the sales bill at the time of sale by
the salesperson. Frequently this gave rise to dis-
crepancies between the information in the store
records relating to an account number and the
information on the sales bill due to inaccuracies
on the latter. Eliminating these discrepancies was
time consuming and resulted in customer billing
and delivery delays (Walter, 1922).
The invention of a new style of charge card,
called the Charga-Plate, provided a solution to
this problem (Fig. 4). The card (Charga-Plate) was
developed in the late 1920s by Farrington Manu-
facturing Company, Massachusetts (Ferry, 1960).
It was embossed with the customer’s name,
address and account number. This ensured that
accurate account details were automatically
imprinted on the sales bill. The system was ?rst
adopted by Filene’s department store, Boston, in
1929 (Mahoney, 1955) Within one month, the
company had issued 93,000 plates (Bitner, 1934).
In summary, the introduction of the charge
card, was an important step towards a more
rationalized method of administering credit
accounts. The customer’s status became nothing
more than an account number within the debtors
records. The card facilitated management in
assigning a position to each customer in order to
aid in their future surveillance. Applying Fou-
cault’s partitioning principle, the card created a
disciplinary space for each customer (Foucault,
1979, p. 143).
5.2. The debtors record
Each numbered customer charge card was asso-
ciated with an account in the debtors ledger. ‘‘‘It is
numbered,’ wrote Gimbels [store in Philadelphia]
to a client about their coin, ‘and that number
becomes a feature of your account on our
books.’’’ (The Credit World, 1919, July 6, p. 15
cited in Leach, 1993, p. 125). This debtors record
formed the basis for all store credit authorization
and collection decisions. A highly e?cient and
rationalized system of credit operation subse-
quently emerged.
Credit authorization no longer required a char-
acter judgement for every customer credit pur-
chase. Rather, the store authorizer consulted the
customer debtors account and credit was extended
on the basis of the outstanding balance:
When a sales check is received, the authorizer
compares it with the index to see the name,
address, limit, number of identi?cation coin,
special instructions, credit rating placed by
the store, date account was opened, occupa-
tion or profession, and the signature of the
customer and all authorized buyers. The
authorizer then looks up the charge account
in the ledger to be sure that the customer has
not bought over the charge limit allowed. If
everything is satisfactory, the sales check is
authorized, and if a ’take-with’ transaction,
notice is sent to the counter where the custo-
mer is waiting. (Leigh, 1923, pp. 353–4.)
To speed up the authorization process, index
cards (Fig. 5) containing summarised customer
account information rather than the debtors led-
ger were consulted:
In the small store the authorizer, who may be
the credit man himself, or the proprietor, will
usually refer to the accounts receivable ledger
whenever it is necessary to complete the
identi?cation and check the purchase of a
charge customer. In larger stores a special
authorization index is often provided for
authorization work, the authorizer referring
to this index instead of the accounts receivable
748 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
Fig. 4. An illustration of the Farrington charga-plate system. Source: Advertisement reproduced from Phelps (1938, p. 149).
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 749
ledger . . . The authorization index contains a
record of every charge account on the store’s
books. Usually each account is entered upon
a separate card in a visible ?le. (Phelps, 1938,
p. 163).
The visibility of these index cards is a persistent
theme throughout the literature. The use of
coloured tabs on the margin of the cards was one
means by which a store could achieve such visibi-
lity (Butz, 1932). This practice appears to have
been commonplace according to Holmes (1923).
Echoes of Owen’s ‘silent monitor’ (Walsh &
Stewart, 1993) are apparent in Gayton’s (1929, p.
148) description:
. . . there are four signals to be inserted in the
index tubes. Red, meaning no charges are to
be authorized without the credit manager’s or
the assistants personal approval. Amber,
meaning that our authorizer should refer to
the ’Collection Follow-Up Record’ . . . and
may use her own judgement about authoriz-
ing or referring further. A permanent red dot
is placed in the middle of all tubes to remain
there as a ’black eye’ on all records that have
been carried red or amber signals or where
the account was opened on a narrow margin
of safety . . . There is another signal—a green
one. This indicates that the customer must be
identi?ed. We have a ?le of signatures for this
purpose.
These systems were commercially available and
advertised in trade magazines during this era (e.g.
The Credit World, 1926, XV, 3, p. 32; The Credit
World, 1929, XVIII, 1, p. 23). The use of coloured
signals lay at the core of the operation of author-
ization systems such as Kardex (Fig. 6) and Lam-
son (Fig. 7).
Debtors’ ledger information, particularly an
age-based analysis of the debtor balance, was also
important at the collection stage. The notion of
using an age-based debtors analysis to monitor
collections appears to be a novel one. Even the
technique of ageing the debtor balance required a
careful and detailed elaboration by its followers
before its adoption could become commonplace.
For example, Weinhold’s address (Controlling the
Investments in Accounts Receivable) to store
controllers attending the 1930 Controllers’ Con-
gress of the NRDGA examines in minute detail
Fig. 5. Example of debtors ledger customer index card. Source: Reproduced from Eggleston (1931, p. 206).
750 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
Fig. 6. The Kardex system of credit authorization. Source: Reproduced from advertisement in The Credit World (1926, XV, 3, p. 32).
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 751
Fig. 7. The Lamson credit authorizing system, Source: Reproduced from The Credit World (1929, XVIII, 1, p. 23).
752 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
the steps involved in ageing an account and cal-
culating aged percentages (Weinhold, 1930).
Whilst Zinser’s presentation to the same forum in
1933, stressing the importance of account analysis
in the control of accounts receivable, was chosen
as the award winning essay of the annual Congress
(Zinser, 1933, p. 32):
The joint concern of the general management,
the controller and the credit manager is to
?nd a means of controlling the credit oper-
ation. The merchandise manager is well sup-
plied with data regarding his merchandise
stocks, purchases, sales, turnover, mark-
downs, gross and net pro?t. He may have at
his disposal the detailed unit control of
stocks. In any event, he has periodical physi-
cal inventories and season letter reports. The
same detailed analysis can be made available
each month end with respect to the accounts
receivable, showing the age analysis of indi-
vidual accounts, and the aggregate totals of
this analysis. The collection on accounts can
be analyzed to show their application to the
charge sales of the preceding month, respec-
tively. The current increase in doubtful
accounts can be charted monthly and com-
pared with the reserve for loss provided out
of income or capital. By making this analysis
an integral part of the accounts receivable
bookkeeping routine, the practical credit man
will obtain invaluable aid in his day to day
handling of the accounts.
From the age-based analysis the collection
manager could easily draw up a list of old custo-
mer balances requiring follow up attention.
Although the regular retail terms of depart-
ment stores generally require that customers
settle their accounts monthly, there are
nevertheless many customers who fall in
arrears in making payments. A list, such as
the one shown in Exhibit 67, [Fig. 8] is fre-
quently prepared for the purpose of inform-
ing the credit manager regarding the
customers who are behind in their payments.
The form which is illustrated contains columns
for subsequently reporting the condition of
the accounts. An idea can be gained from a
study of previous lists of delinquent accounts
receivable of how long it took the various
customers to complete the liquidation of their
old balances. When these lists are periodically
brought up to date, there is available to the
credit department manager information that
he requires to properly supervise collections.
(Eggleston, 1931, p. 149.)
It is useful to contrast such rigorous listing and
analysis of customer balances with the varied per-
sonal histories gathered in earlier decades on
potentially bad debts. For example, the Harrods
Bad Debt Schedule recorded an entry in January
1909: ‘‘Gone away—no knowledge of where-
Fig. 8. Example of bad debt listing. Source: Reproduced from
Eggleston (1931, p. 147).
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 753
abouts—Separated from Husband who is not
responsible.’’
15
By recording and reviewing customer payments,
the collection department could build a pro?le of
every customer’s credit history. For example,
Goodwin (1935, pp. 90–91) outlines the following
system:
At the present, we have in e?ect a customer
history record for every open account on our
ledgers. We use sheets approximately 8 1/2
00
Â
11
00
which are housed in ledgers, two of
these ledgers to one Accounts Receivable
ledger. The history record covers a period of
four years, and provides for the following
information:
End of Month Balance Owing
Date of Payment and Amount
Credits
Collection E?ort
. . . From this record it is possible to deter-
mine the buying, paying and returning of
merchandise habits over a period of years.
Foucault’s (1979, p. 177) principle of disciplin-
ary power provides a useful frame of reference
from which to view management’s authorization
and collection activities. Normalising judgements
were made by management as to the nature of
customer payment patterns. Management estab-
lished standards of customer behaviour. The
debtors accounting system played a role in mon-
itoring customer behaviour and detecting devia-
tions from established norms. These norms were
translated to credit customers under various gui-
ses. As seen earlier, the interview stage was one
medium in which to educate the customer on the
subsequent monitoring of his balance. Other
stores waited until a later stage in the process to
convey their message, usually by way of an age-
based analysis of the customer’s statement. For
example, Weinhold (1930, p. 172) provides the
following account of how the stores in one US
town communicated an analysis of payment
behaviour to customers:
You will notice a little printed form . . . which
the stores in Youngstown use that they send
monthly with all their statements, acquainting
customers with rating methods. This is the
type of thing that we think can be used to
educate customers regarding the methods of
rating. We have found that it has a very
wholesome e?ect on those customers who have
previously been delinquent in their payments.
[The Retail Credit Association of Youngs-
town desires to acquaint all the Customers of
the 300 member stores of the Merchants
Mercantile Company with the basis used for
its ratings. Each member reports periodically
its experience as regards to ’Promptness of
Payments’ for each Customer on its books.
Settlement Within The Following Month
. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .Prompt
Settlement During The 2nd And 3rd Month
. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . ..Fair
Settlement After 3rd Month. . .. . .. . .. . .
. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .Slow
Thus a customer’s combined rating might
read ’3-P 2-F 2-S’ meaning that 3 stores
reported Prompt payment, 2 stores Fairly
prompt payment and 2 stores Slow payment.
Other Terms arranged at time of purchase are
exceptions to this ruling but only apply to
that speci?c purchase. Deferred Payment
accounts are rated in accordance with the
Promptness of Payment on Due Date agreed
upon each payment. Delinquent Accounts are
subject to interest charges.
’Prompt Pay Creates Credit’.]
We had one send back the slip, having been
angry, with a check-mark at exactly the point
where she would have been rated. So they
clearly understand what it means.
The accounting system therefore became impli-
cated in rendering the deviant customer visible. He
was then penalised with increasingly demanding
follow-up letters and threatened with withdrawal
of charge card facilities. In this way, the knowl-
edge base created within the accounting system
15
Loose sheets entitled: Bad Debt Schedule No. 30, Harrods
Archives.
754 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
replaced the former highly personalised system of
gathering intelligence on each customer. Prior
dependence on personalized details declined in
importance in the face of rigorous ledger procedure:
To play the role of ‘friendly creditor’, how-
ever, does not necessarily mean that one need
to be ‘happy-go-lucky’ in collection matters
and although we try to keep the personal
touch in all our collection e?orts there is a
highly organized system back of all our work.
(Shedd, 1926, p. 9.)
5.3. From moral evaluation to rationalization
In summary, it is fair to say that by the early
1930s, in the USA at any rate,
16
judgement based
on character appeared to have given way to the
genesis of a system that appears far more familiar
to the contemporary reader—one based upon the
systematic analysis of an archive of payment
behaviour as revealed by the debtors account. An
approach perceived as ‘scienti?c’ and ‘logical’ was
favoured over previously random actions (Gay-
ton, 1929, p. 148):
The fundamental principle of a scienti?c
Credit Business is the use of written records
against memory methods. Scienti?c as against
hunch methods is the laying out of a program
of conduct based upon logical policies so
understood by all concerned that in the
absence of the directing head the plan may be
carried out to a successful conclusion.
Moral character pro?les were replaced with
reliance on seemingly objective numbers: the age-
based debtor balance. ‘‘The application of modern
accounting methods is all that is needed to furnish
all the information desired’’ (Zelch, 1935, p. 66).
17
Miller’s (1992, p. 68) work is insightful here:
Calculative technologies make it possible to
render visible both the near and the distant
activities of individuals, to calculate the
extent to which they depart from a norm of
performance, and to accumulate such calcu-
lations in computer ?les and compare them
. . . The end point of these diverse calculative
machines is the single ?gure In this, the
objectivity speci?c to accounting achieves its
most developed form.
Two key features of the new system appear to be
the creation of a portable cipher, the charge plate
and the creation of a unit record. All of the
descriptions emphasise the use of sheets or cards
of paper, rather than materials stored in books of
account. The emergence of such systems of record
keeping was a new departure and by their very
nature, enabled the analyst to recombine the ele-
ments to perform an age-based analysis of
accounts receivable. However, other combinations
were also possible. This new knowledge of the
customer’s accounting records could be used to
support direct mail advertising (Eggleston, 1931;
Fig. 9) and enabled the creation of elaborate
orderings and distributions of the customer:
. . . we have printed sheets showing lists of
numbers in vertical columns running from 1
to 50 and from 51 to 100 . . . we have a com-
plete, legible, permanent list of 90,000 num-
bers. Each number represents a customer.
There are ?ve columns for information
against each number. By using di?erent
colored symbols, we can easily show in one
book from 15 to 20 di?erent observations
about each customer. (Bassett, 1928, p. 14).
Similar initiatives were employed by member
stores of the Paris based International Association
of Department Stores (IADS, 1933, Doc. 99). The
?rst Parisian department store to o?er mass credit,
Dufayel’s, reveals that it also ‘‘became one of the
?rst French advertising agencies that published
surveys and compiled mailing lists. Dufayel,
therefore, did more than simply peddle credit to
the working class; it was actively creating, shap-
ing, and scrutinizing a new buying public’’ (Co?n,
16
In the UK, Tebbutt (1983) also suggests the adoption of a
more rationalized approach to credit during the inter-war
years.
17
‘‘The Horse & Buggy Age compared with the Lindberg
Age in Credit’’ (Williams, 1930, p. 16) is how one commentator
captures the shift to more standardized credit procedures dur-
ing this era.
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 755
1994, p. 754). This new-found interest in consumer
behaviour is also evident in the history of con-
sumer research during the 1930s:
. . . we see increasingly organised, if still
somewhat contingent and often crude,
attempts by advertisers and retailers to
observe and classify the detailed tastes and
habits of the consuming population. (Nava,
1995, p. 13.)
It appears therefore, that at the same time per-
iod that market researchers sought to classify and
monitor consumer behaviour, store controllers
were recording and analysing the spending habits
of their charge account customers.
6. Conclusions
Our narrative has attempted to explore
accountability at work in a new setting: the
department store within the realm of the con-
sumer. To date neglected by accounting aca-
demics, examination of the managerial practices of
this vast organizational form can enrich our
understanding of the accounting craft. This paper
has focused on one aspect of store control. We
have explored some elements surrounding the
creation of mass consumer credit and accounting’s
role in that process. This issue is of interest since
credit appears to play an important role in the
constitution of consumer societies and also has
received attention as a component of information
intensive societies. Similar to Miller and O’Leary
(1987, p. 235) an aim of this study is to suggest
‘‘some elements of a theoretical understanding of
accounting which would locate it in its interrela-
tion with other projects for the social and organi-
sational management of individual lives’’. Whilst
those authors use the ‘‘?rm as a site in the con-
struction of the governable person’’ (p. 250), this
paper considers the workings of an accounting
technique in an alternative site: the store as a site
in the construction of the governable consumer.
The mundane practice of credit customer classi?-
cation narrated within this paper can be viewed
not only as an illustration of the disciplinary
power of accounting but also its application as a
technique of governance (Foucault, 1991; Miller &
Rose, 1990). The physical location of the indivi-
dual credit customer as a numbered entity in the
accounts of the debtors’ ledger whose actions are
subject to a rigid surveillance regime is sugges-
tive of Foucault’s (1979) history of the prison.
Creating visibilities of payment behaviour,
accounting numbers became powerful disciplinary
tools in constructing the norm and punishing the
deviant. However, perhaps a broader, but com-
plementary, issue is also at stake here. The
notion of governmentality can be similarly
insightful to our analysis.
Consumption itself according to Wickham
(1997, p. 285) ‘‘is an object of social scienti?c
knowledge only because and insofar as it operates
as an object of governance’’. Similarly accounting’s
Fig. 9. Example of customer account analysis. Source: Repro-
duced from Eggleston (1931, p. 148).
756 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
role as a tool of governance is competently argued
by Miller (1994, p. 3):
By reducing diverse activities and processes to
the end point of the single ?gure, accounting
makes comparable the entities of which it
produces calculations. In the process,
accounting helps make possible a particular
way of governing individuals and activities.
For such numbers can be used to evaluate
and compare individuals, departments or
divisions. And they can also be used by indi-
viduals themselves to compare where they are
with where they should be, what they have
achieved with what they should have
achieved.
Accounting is one medium by which an indivi-
dual’s actions may become visible and this process
in turn plays a role in shaping and governing the
conduct of the individual (Miller & Rose, 1990;
Rose, 1990, p. 415). In this paper, calculative
regimes surrounding the numbering of the credit
customer, checking of credit authorization limits,
reference to visible coloured index markers, and
monthly analysis of age-based balances, all con-
verge to facilitate the management of individual
lives. Analysis of the credit customer’s debtors
record can be considered, not only as a tool of
disciplinary power, but also an example of how
accounting numbers provided management with
one means of governance at a distance. Evidence
is presented which suggests that credit per se is
nothing new, rather the innovation involved the
ability to act at a distance (Latour, 1987, p. 219;
Robson, 1992) and hence overcome the con-
straints of local knowledge.
There appear to be two distinct phases asso-
ciated with the appropriation of local knowledge
by centres. The ?rst phase involved the creation of
mobile written records which attempted to emu-
late the objects of local knowledge—a focus upon
the character and morality of the individual bor-
rower. The second phase involved a more stable
form of knowledge based upon the creation of a
concrete identity for the customer and an entire
archive of customer behaviour based upon
accounting records. However, these accounting
records adopted a new form—that of the unit
record rather than a page in an account book.
This characteristic created the all important qual-
ity of combinability which ensured that new
unanticipated bodies of knowledge could emerge,
hence facilitating the creation of the mass indivi-
dual and a transition from a focus upon character
to a focus upon payment behaviour. Archives of
knowledge, gathered in the debtors record, formed
the basic components of the marketing department’s
customer pro?le analysis. Therefore, one may
conclude that accounting was intertwined with the
emergence of consumer society more generally.
Acknowledgements
The ?nancial assistance of the Irish Accoun-
tancy Educational Trust is gratefully acknowl-
edged. The paper has bene?ted from comments
and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers and
participants at the Interdisciplinary Perspectives
on Accounting Conference 1997.
Appendix. Mc Bernies Archives
18
1. Examples of the extent of detailed personal
information on customers
22/10/1923 Bookkeeper in X Flour Mills for past
year. Yearly tenant of furnished private house.
Value of furniture about $100. Salary about $4 per
week. Prompt in payments and safe for amount
$25. Steady. Sober. Married no children.
24/1/1925 Has been building cottages for
Rathdrum District Council for past 3 years, and is
at present building 3 cottages for Shillelagh DC.
Also carries on T. Quarries, and seems to be doing
very well, as he employs a good many men.
18
Mc Bernies Department Store, Dublin, Irish National
Archives, ref.: G1/i. The names of the customers are excluded
for reasons of con?dentiality.
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 757
12/2/1925 Was governess to Mrs K for her 2
sons, now at school in Dublin. Miss G is staying
with Mrs K over 15 years and is now acting as
lady’s companion; drives Mrs K’s motor car, and
assists in her house. She is most respectable, and I
think she has private means.
10/10/1925 X, ex-Lieut. F.S. Army is principal
partner. It is said there is a foreigner behind it.
Cannot ascertain owing to his short time in business,
whether he would be safe but he is said to have had a
considerable sum when leaving the Army.
22/10/1928 Carries on business as a dairy farmer
and pays someone to look after the business. He is
a teacher at the school mentioned and is very
respectable and ?nancially sound. Considered safe
for your ?gures.
8/11/1928 Wife of X a small farmer carrying on a
dairy business, sending milk to Dublin by train and
very industrious. Mrs X has not a good name for
payments but with her husband’s sanction credit
named is quite in order.
18/6/1929 Several years at address which he rents
and is employed as a salesman by X Ltd. He is said
to be highly respectable and nothing is known
against him, though his ?nancial position is not
regarded as too strong. He is been ill for some time
past but is now all right again. Mrs B is said to be
living beyond her means and in view of this
informants hesitate to advise £50 credit, but
consider up to £20 a fair trade risk.
25/1/1930 I am reliably informed that she recently
was inmate of a private mental hospital. Would
strongly advise obtaining her father’s approval.
28/8/1930 Wife of Mr A, at one time connected
with the X Co. Very respectable, steady man, said
to own his own house, but not regarded as too
strong ?nancially. However he is very well
regarded locally, always pays his way and nothing
is known against him.
2. Examples of the importance of personal
knowledge of customers
23/10/1924 Mrs F(wife of Linens buyer) a native of
Drogheda stated this was a very good family living in
best part of the town and should be quite all right.
1/2/1928 A sister of Mr C. Good as gold.
14/10/1929 Known to Mr F who says she is an
old cash customer.
19/3/1930 Brother of X who says he is a Professor
of music in Y school. This was con?rmed by Mr A
who says he is a very respectable man. Mr X states
he owns this house and has a motor car.
18/5/1930 Mr C (silks dept) says: Next door
neighbours of mine. Own the house and are OK.
3. Examples of the importance of property and/or
position in granting credit
15/2/1924 At address for 15 years. Has all
exterior appearances of well to do person and has
no other business than keeping ?rst class lodgers.
Safe for credit named.
7/6/1924 Married woman. Husband living. Own
a large property in America. Quite safe for credit
named.
22/7/1929 Wife of a Police Pensioner who is also
a Clerk and Rent agent. They have a nice private
house and are in comfortable circumstances. I
consider credit named all right.
17/10/1929 First class people, have a beautiful
place and should be all right.
11/2/1930 Employed as Accountant in
Rathmines, a permanent and pensionable post.
Runs two motor cars. Respectable and nothing is
known against him.
12/6/1930 These people are Gentlemen Farmers
in a very big way and are quite all right.
18/6/1930 Wife of Dr. B, dispensary Dr. Resides
with her husband and family in a private residence
with 17 acres of land attached. Respectable and
said to be well o?.
758 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
31/6/1930 Wife of Mr X, an ex-o?cer of the
R.I.C. who retired with County Inspector’s rank.
Has about £500 p.a. pension and is regarded as a
very solvent man and should prove safe for the
credit named.
References
Adburgham, A. (1964). Shops and shopping 1800–1914. Lon-
don: George Allen & Unwin.
Alexander, D. (1970). Retailing in England during the Industrial
Revolution. London: The Athlone Press, University of Lon-
don.
Appleby, J. (1993). Consumption in modern social thought. In
J. Brewer, & R. Porter (Eds.), Consumption and the world of
goods (pp. 162–173). London and New York: Routledge.
Bartlett, R., Williams, K., Adcock, W., & Moore, A. The
future of consumer credit and retail payment systems in
western Europe. In: Proceedings of the National Retail Mer-
chants Association Symposium, Brussels, October.
Bassett, H. (1928). Keeping tabs on the customer. In: Proceed-
ings of Controllers’ Congress, National Retail Dry Goods
Association, Hotel Statler, Boston, MA, May, pp. 13–15.
Bauman, Z. (1992). Imitations of postmodernity. London: Rou-
tledge.
Bitner, L. S. (1934). A group system of customer identi?cation
and credit control. In: Proceedings of Controllers’ Congress,
National Retail Dry Goods Association, Palmer House, Chi-
cago, Illinois, June, pp. 65–75.
Blocker, J. (1927). Retail credit business in Kansas. Kansas: The
School of Business, University of Kansas.
Bocock, R. (1993). Consumption. London: Routledge.
Buckeridge, A. B. (1927). Pittsburgh retailers have perfect
credit protection. The Credit World, XV (5), 7.
Butz, R. H. (1932). Safety signals for credit control. The Credit
World, XX (10), 12–13.
Campbell, C. (1991). Consumption: the new wave of research
in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Journal of Social
Behaviour and Personality, 6, 57–74.
Clammer, J. (1992). Aesthetics of the self: shopping and social
being in contemporary urban Japan. In R. Shields (Ed.),
Lifestyle shopping: the subject of consumption (pp. 195–215).
London and New York: Routledge.
Clark, C. B. (1925). Application of the Controllers’ functions to
economical operations. In: Proceedings of Controllers’ Con-
gress, National Retail Dry Goods Association, Memorial Hall,
Dayton, Ohio, June, pp. 19–21.
Clark, E. (1930). Financing the consumer. New York: Harper &
Brothers.
Clarke, A. J. (1939). Credits-collections-instalment selling. In:
Proceedings of Controllers’ Congress, National Retail Dry
Goods Association, Hotel Fairmont, San Francisco, June, pp.
161–166.
Co?n, J. (1994). Credit, consumption, and images of women’s
desires: selling the sewing machine in late nineteenth-century
France. French Historical Studies, 18, 749–783.
Coleman, P. (1974). Debtors and creditors in America: insol-
vency, imprisonment for debt, and bankruptcy, 1607–1900.
Madison: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Comstock, L. (1925). Modern retail methods: records and
accounting. New York: United States Corporation.
Corina, M. (1978). Fine silks and oak counters: Debenhams
1778–1978. London: Hutchinson Benham.
Eggleston, D. C. (1931). Department store accounting. New
York: Greenberg.
Emmet, B., & Jeuck, J. (1950). Catalogues and counters, a his-
tory of Sears, Roebuck and Company. Chicago: The Uni-
versity of Chicago Press.
Falk, P., & Campbell, C. (1997). The shopping experience.
London: Sage.
Featherstone, M. (1991). Consumer culture and postmodermism.
London: Sage.
Ferry, J. W. (1960). A history of the department store. New
York: Macmillan.
Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punish, the birth of the
prison. London: Tavistock.
Foucault, M. (1988). ‘The Political Technology of Individuals’.
In L. Martin, H. Gutman, & P. Hutton (Eds.), Technologies
of the self: a seminar with Michel Foucault. Amerhst: Uni-
versity of Massachusetts Press.
Foucault, M. (1991). Governmentality. In G. Burchell,
C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault e?ect: studies in
governmentality (pp. 87–104). London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Fraser, W. H. (1981). The coming of the mass market, 1850–
1914. London: Macmillan.
Freund, P. (1982). The civilized body: social domination, control,
and health. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Gamlen, E. (1926). New wine—old bottles. The Credit World,
XV (1), 15 /30.
Gayton, O. C. (1929). Customer account analysis. In: Proceed-
ings of Controllers’ Congress, National Retail Dry Goods
Association, Hotel Drake, Chicago, Illinois, May, pp. 148–
150.
Goodwin, S. F. (1935). Accounts receivable procedure. In: Pro-
ceedings of Controllers’ Congress, National Retail Dry Goods
Association, The Stevens, Chicago, Illinois, June, pp. 90–94.
Grant, J. (1992). Money of the mind: borrowing and lending in
America from the Civil War to Michael Milken. New York:
Farrar Straus Giroux.
Greene, J. (1924). Principles and methods of retailing. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Guernsey, J. (1932). Recognition for the credit man!. The
Credit World, XX (5), 5.
Hagerty, J. E. (1913). Mercantile credit. New York: Henry
Holt.
Hanes, C. O. (1915). The retail credit and adjustment bureaus:
their organization and their conduct. Columbia: Retail Mer-
chants Association.
Harris, R., & Seldon, A. (1958). Hire purchase in a free society.
London: Institute of Economic A?airs.
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 759
Hayes, S., & Miller, L. (1994). Dun and Bradstreet and the
information society. Media Culture and Society, 16, 117–
140.
Holmes, W. T. (1923). Credit methods and methods of author-
isation. In: Proceedings of Controllers’ Congress, National
Retail Dry Goods Association, Hotel Statler, Detroit, June,
pp. 109–112.
Hopwood, A. (1987). The archaeology of accounting systems.
Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12, 207–234.
Hoskin, K., & Macve, R. (1986). Accounting and the exami-
nation: a geneology of disciplinary power. Accounting,
Organizations and Society, 11, 105–136.
Hoskin, K., & Macve, R. (1988). The genisis of accountability:
the West Point connections. Accounting, Organizations and
Society, 13, 37–73.
Hotchkin, W. R. (1925). Modern merchandising. New York:
Doubleday, Page & Company.
International Association of Department Stores. (1933). The
business policies pursued by the member ?rms of the Inter-
national Association of Department Stores during the pre-
sent depression. (Document No. 99). Paris: Association’s
private archives.
International Association of Department Stores. (1935a).
American department store organization in 1934. (Document
No. 151). Paris: Association’s private archives.
International Association of Department Stores. (1935b). The
customers of Magasin du Nord and their views on the store.
(Document No. 167). Paris: Association’s private archives.
International Association of Department Stores. (1955). The sales
of household durable goods and of textiles and clothing:
Instalment credit and the problems facing the department store.
(Document No. 611). Paris: Association’s private archives.
Johnson, P. (1983). Credit and thrift and the British working
class 1870–1939. In J. Winter (Ed.), The working class in
modern British history (pp. 147–170). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Jones, H. O. (1927). The interdependence and interrelation of
all lines of credit. The Credit World, XV (7), 24.
Langman, L. (1992). Neon cages: Shopping for subjectivity. In
R. Shields (Ed.), Lifestyle shopping: the subject of consump-
tion (pp. 40–82). London and New York: Routledge.
Latour, B. (1987). Science in action. Milton Keynes: Open
University Press.
Leach, W. (1993). Land of desire: merchants, power, and the rise
of a new American culture. New York: Pantheon Books.
Leigh, R. (1923). Elements of retailing. New York and London:
Appleton.
Loft, A. (1986). Towards a critical understanding of account-
ing: the case of cost accounting in the UK, 1914–1925.
Accounting Organizations and Society, 11, 137–171.
Mahoney, T. (1955). The great merchants: the stories of twenty
famous retail operations and the people who made them great.
New York: Harper & Brothers.
McKendrick, N., Brewer, J., & Plumb, J. H. (1982). The birth
of a consumer society: the commercialization of eighteenth-
century England. London: Europa Publications.
Miller, D. (1995). Consumption as the vanguard of history. In
D. Miller (Ed.), Acknowledging consumption (pp. 1–57).
London: Routeledge.
Miller, P. (1992). Accounting and objectivity: the invention of
calculating selves and calculable spaces. Annals of Scholar-
ship, 9, 61–86.
Miller, P. (1994). Accounting as social and institutional prac-
tice: an introduction. In A. Hopwood, & P. Miller (Eds.),
Accounting as social and institutional practice. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Miller, P., & O’Leary, T. (1987). Accounting and the construc-
tion of the governable person. Accounting, Organizations and
Society, 12, 235–266.
Miller, P., & Rose, N. (1990). Governing economic life. Econ-
omy and Society, 19, 1–31.
National Retail Merchants Association. (1969). Economic
characteristics of department store credit. New York:
National Retail Merchants Association.
Nava, M. (1995). Modernity tamed? Women shoppers and
rationalisation of consumption in the interwar period. Aus-
tralian Journal of Communication, 22 (2), 1–19.
Noah, L. J. (1926). Instalment selling in the modern store. In:
Proceedings of Controllers’ Congress, National Retail Dry
Goods Association, Niagara Hotel, Niagara Falls, New York,
May, pp. 57–59.
Nugent, R. (1939). Consumer credit and economic stability. New
York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Nystrom, P. (1925). Retail selling and store management. New
York and London: Appleton.
Olney, M. (1991). Buy now pay later: advertising, credit and
consumer durables in the 1920s. Chapel Hill and London: The
University of North Carolina Press.
Pasermadjian, H. (1950). Management research in retailing.
London: Newman Books.
Phelps, C. W. (1938). Retail credit fundamentals. St. Louis:
National Retail Credit Association.
Piore, M. (1995). Beyond individualism. Cambridge: Massachu-
setts: Harvard University Press.
Rappaport, E. (1993). The West End and women’s pleasure: gender
and commercial culture in London, 1860–1914. New Bruswick:
Rutgers The State University of New Jersey. PhD thesis.
Ritzer, G. (1995). Expressing America: a critique of the global credit
card society. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press.
Robson, K. (1992). Accounting numbers as ‘‘inscription’’:
action at a distance and the development of accounting.
Accounting, Organizations and Society, 17, 685–708.
Rose, N. (1990). Governing the soul: the shaping of the private
self. London and New York: Routledge.
Santink, J. L. (1990). Timothy Eaton and the rise of his depart-
ment store. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Saunders, P. (1988). The sociology of consumption: a new
research agenda. In P. Otnes (Ed.), The sociology of con-
sumption (pp. 141–156). Oslo: Solum Forlag.
Seidman, W. (1957). Accounts receivable and inventory ?nan-
cing. Ann Arbor: Masterco Press.
Shaoul, M. (1992). On the signi?cance of consumer credit: an
alternative to ‘‘commonsense’’ accounts. Manchester: Uni-
versity of Manchester. PhD thesis.
760 I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761
Shedd, H. D. (1926). The friendly creditor. The Credit World,
XV (11), 8.
Shields, R. (1992). Lifestyle shopping: the subject of consump-
tion. London and New York: Routledge.
Stewart, R. (1992). Pluralizing our past: Foucault in accounting
history. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 5,
57–73.
Tebbutt, M. (1983). Making ends meet: pawnbroking and work-
ing-class credit. New York: Leicester University Press, St.
Martin’s Press.
The Credit World. (1930). Charging interest on delinquent
accounts. The Credit World, XV (1), 21.
Truesdale, J. R. (1927). Credit bureau management. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Walsh, E. J., & Stewart, R. E. (1990). Management accounting
in the United States: a prelude to a history. University of
North Texas: Workshop on Accounting History.
Walsh, E., & Stewart, R. (1993). Accounting and the construc-
tion of institutions: the case of a factory. Accounting, Orga-
nizations and Society, 18, 783–800.
Walter, F. (1922). The retail charge account. New York: The
Ronald Press.
Warren, E. (1939). Credit dealing. London: Pitman.
Weinhold, B, M. (1930). Controlling the investments in
accounts receivable. In: Proceedings of Controllers’ Congress,
National Retail Dry Goods Association, Hotel Drake, Chicago,
Illinois, May, pp. 163–181.
Wickham, G. (1997). Governance of consumption. In
P. Sulkunen, J. Holmwood, H. Radner, & G. Schulze (Eds.),
Constructing the new consumer society (pp. 277–291). Lon-
don: Macmillan Press.
Williams, R. L. (1930). The horse & buggy age compared
with the Lindberg age in credit. The Credit World, XIX,
16–17.
Woodlock, D. (1925). Message from the Retail Credit Men’s
National Association. In: Proceedings of Controllers’ Con-
gress, National Retail Dry Goods Association, Memorial Hall,
Dayton, Ohio, June, pp. 60–61.
Zelch, J. (1934). Instalment sales. In: Proceedings of Con-
trollers’ Congress, National Retail Dry Goods Association,
Palmer House, Chicago, Illinois, June, pp. 106–109.
Zelch, J. (1935). Statistical tools of the credit department. In:
Proceedings of Controllers’ Congress, National Retail Dry Goods
Association, The Stevens, Chicago, Illinois, June, pp. 66–69.
Zinser, E. M. (1933). The control of accounts receivable. In:
Proceedings of Controllers’ Congress, National Retail Dry
Goods Association, Palmer House, Chicago, Illinois, May,
pp. 31–35.
I. Jeacle, E.J. Walsh / Accounting, Organizations and Society 27 (2002) 737–761 761

doc_616761420.pdf