000 02252cam a2200265 4500500
005 20250121054945.0
041 _afre
042 _adc
100 1 0 _aLemarchand, Yannick
_eauthor
700 1 0 _a Levant, Yves
_eauthor
700 1 0 _a Zimnovitch, Henri
_eauthor
245 0 0 _aAgricultural accountability goes apart in Grignon during the 1870s
260 _c2018.
500 _a1
520 _aFor a period of seven years, French agronomists were embroiled in a controversy regarding the use of double-entry bookkeeping in agriculture that became quite heated at times. The debate during this time pitched Paul-Claude Dubost, a professor of rural economics at the School of Agriculture of Grignon, against the supporters of the accounting model of Mathieu de Dombasle, developed in the 1820s, replicated in numerous textbooks and taught in agricultural schools. Dubost complained about the complexity, the cumbersomeness and the arbitrariness of its valuations. He also argued that it did not have any relevance in assessing the profitability of farms due to the interdependence of the varied crops within a given agricultural production system. He proposed a simplified alternative, which his opponents considered too rudimentary. More than 15 authors participated in a discussion that is without equivalent in the French industrial world of the 19th century. This discussion reflects the importance attached to accounting by agronomists, for whom it was, above all, a means to test their hypotheses and to verify the soundness of their technical options. It is not our purpose, 150 years after, to say who was right and who was wrong, but rather to emphasise the recurrent nature of the question of the adaptation of accounting tools to the needs of users and the futility of searching for a supposedly universal solution.
690 _aaccountability
690 _aagricultural education
690 _aPaul-Claude Dubost
690 _a19th century
690 _acontroversy
690 _aFrance
690 _aMathieu de Dombasle
786 0 _nEntreprises et histoire | o 88 | 3 | 2018-02-12 | p. 37-52 | 1161-2770
856 4 1 _uhttps://shs.cairn.info/journal-entreprises-et-histoire-2017-3-page-37?lang=en&redirect-ssocas=7080
999 _c471311
_d471311