Approach to the accounting system of the railroad workshops of MZA in the 19th century

Abstract

The railroad is one of the subjects most analyzed by historical research, both in Spain and other developed countries. This is undoubtedly due to its importance in the economic development of countries. With regard to the study of railroad economic history stands out the scarce number of researches carried out on accounting records, spite of the fact that, as it is generally agreed, modern accounting appeared in the railways in the mid-nineteenth century. This paper supposes the beginning of our studies on the subject and is devoted to the set of rules governing how accounts were maintained in Spanish railway companies in the nineteenth century. At a later date the research will be complemented by the analysis of accounting records. For our purpose we have chosen one the two largest railroad companies in Spain: the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Zaragoza y Alicante (MZA), that is Railroad Company from Madrid to Zaragoza and Alicante (MZA); the specific subject of the paper is the accounting of the workshops of the Company. The article structure is very simple. After some introductory remarks, in the second section we provide a brief historical outline of the Company; the third
section lists the different types of workshops according to their importance. The fourth section constitutes the core of the work: it presents the analysis of the accounting system based on the regulation laid down. The paper concludes with a critical assessment of the system. The main conclusion is that the examined regulation offers a very systematic Chart of Accounts with a high informative level. However, there are presented some models of simplifying records that do not seem to have the same suitability degree.