The Problem of Connections between Accounting and Economics in Italian Accounting at the End of the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th century

The problem of relations or connections between a particular discipline and those that are most similar to it, especially regarding the subject of investigation, has often been non wrongly deemed to be of paramount importance for the development of any field of research. Italian accounting scholars have long wondered about the connections between accounting and its related sciences, particularly those that belong, as accounting does, to the field of economics. This happened since the second half of the nineteenth century. Those were the years when disciplines, whose status of science had already received recognition such as economics and law, existed along with others including accounting which, although having similar attributes, had not yet managed to gain their own analogous accreditation. At that time, accounting was trying to achieve its deserved consideration in the academic world and its scientific recognition, particularly by the experts of some related fields, was a real priority. On the other hand, the need was being felt to position that doctrine within the already extensive scenario of knowledge, without risking to encroach on others’ research fields, in the awareness that any straying out of its domain could be detrimental to the abovementioned recognition. This paper takes into consideration the doctrinal positions taken by Italian accounting in the period between the nineteenth and the twentieth century concerning the nature of relations between accounting itself and its most similar sciences, particularly economics. Over those years, the scholars in that field started to show a peculiar epistemological sensitivity. Spurred by the philosophical debate raised by positivism, and particularly by Compte’s and Spencer’s studies, researchers wondered which was the most appropriate place for accounting in the large field of social sciences. Hence, two different epistemological approaches, one succeeding the other in time. In a first phase, scholars deemed it convenient to use, also for their own purposes, principles drawn from contiguous doctrines that had already been scientifically recognised, such as, for example, economics. So Italian accounting happened to be, even though temporarily, in a position of “scientific subjection” with respect to the mentioned doctrines. In a second phase, due to the awareness of its specific subject and method of investigation, as well of its own purposes, Italian accounting went back to its first steps and considered it necessary to develop internal principles and rules as a function of its peculiar needs. By so doing, scholars mapped out a route that would deeply mark the future of the discipline by making it fully independent on other fields of knowledge, in a sort of emancipation process. This paper will not only describe the two theoretical positions summarized above but, by adopting an interpretative approach, trace their possible causes and try to grasp their effects on the development of the discipline, particularly as regards the theory of value, formulated by the Italian accounting over the period analysed.