Accounting in the brazilian monarchy period: extracts from the ledger book of H. Kettenburg & Co.

This paper analyzes an accounting book used to record the transactions of H. Kettenburg & Co. in the nineteenth century in the South of Brazil. The objective of this research is to present a general view of the accounting entries made in the Ledger Book of this firm, discussing the usefulness of the accounting practices adopted and identifying the accounting themes deemed relevant and of interest, at the time of the Brazilian Monarchy. For this purpose, the paper presents a descriptive and qualitative analysis of the contents extracted from the Kettenburg’s Ledger, between 1868 and 1875. The evidence presented in the Ledger supports the existence of accounting and management control techniques adopted by the firm in the midst of the incipient industrialization of the Province of Rio Grande. The findings highlight the importance of accounting records for the provision of management information to support corporate decision-making. The study also enabled the authors to infer the influences that the Germanic culture had on this family-run business. The Ledger was recorded in German, notwithstanding the Brazilian Commercial Code, which demanded that all accounting documentation should be bookkept in the official language of the country, in other words, Portuguese. This is explained by the fact that the Journal (mandatory by law) was meant for external disclosure and the Ledger (optional), for internal management motivation, in the company’s process of management control.