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Necker's Financial Report

Decent Essays

From Louis XIV, who chose to ignore the deficit on his balance book hundreds of years ago after his reliable accountant Jean-Baptiste Colbert died, to the Lehman Brothers, who collapsed in September 2008 for trading worthless mortgages and swaps, frauds and negligence in financial accountability seems never ending. Once constrained these unethical practices, a flourishing society and stable political status can be established, but rarely merchants and governments can completely and consistently achieve that. The Reckoning shows the significant role of accounting for a successful merchant and a favorable government. At the same time, reliable financial accountability can be conserved by “full cultural engagement” instead of an enforceable accounting …show more content…

Following Britain’s step, France first published royal’s financial reports by Jacques Necker in 1781, which brought public concerns about “accountability” (Soll 145). This concern, however, brought French Revolution due to plausible numbers on Necker’s account book. Coincidentally, Walpole broke his own financial system in the end for pursuing his own interests and careers, and left a red number on his account after dying (Soll 116). Robert Morris, the first American superintendent of finance, did the same thing as what Necker for increasing credibility, but this time, he successful silence critics. At this time, the accounting reporters became political tools, and frauds and negligence filled among governments and private business such as railroad industry. The financial accountability development seemed to back to its initial point, but it was easily to discover that good financial accountability had existed when general culture supported accounting industry. Luca Pacioli, the father of modern accountant, lived in a society where people regarded a good accountant as a God bless person (Soll 50). …show more content…

Even in 15th-century Italy, where were famous for its prosperous business and active merchants, according to Pacioli, rarely people could achieve that goal. The mysterious verve of accounting not only attracted public and rulers attention, but also induced them to combine the success with good bookkeeping method. In some degree, it is the truth, but in today’s view, merely being a good accountant is not enough to be a successful businessman. After more and more successful accounting related stories came out, public firmed their high value of accounting, which connected it to every things in their lives as well as God. This actually created a pressure for accountants to do the best in financial accountability, or at least, they purposely presented a beautiful surface, because public concerned and admired this industry. This sounds like an idol in today’s society, who needed to be careful about their behaviors. This culture, as well as other cultures, could not survive without authority permission, so it is easy to infer that rulers also tried to use accounting to govern society better and managed their own properties. In history, however, from Emperor Augustus to the first American superintendent of finance, rarely people consistently follow accounting ethics, but one thing was certain, accounting always helped these

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