Most accounting literature based on the Foucauldian frame has explained the role of accounting in the imposition of a governmental programme over a population, without considering the consequences in terms of resistance. This paper analyses the state power exerted over populations by means of accounting and also the role of accounting in cases of contestation and resistance towards the various agents of government. To this end, we have studied the enactment, implementation and fall of the Instrucción de Intendentes (Instruction for Intendants) of 1718 in Spain, the roles of the different actors involved, and how accounting was used to defend these conceptions. The change in government by means of accounting is an example of what Foucault identified as the dynamic of discourses.
Dirección General del Tesoro, Inventario 24, box 271
7.
AHN
8.
Consejo de Castilla, Ingresos, box 6549
9.
Estado, box 749
10.
AlbaredaJ (2010) La Guerra de Sucesión de España (1700–1714). Madrid: Crítica.
11.
ArmstrongP (1994) The Influence of Michel Foucault on Accounting Research. Critical Perspectives on Accounting5(1): 25–55.
12.
BakerRRennieM (2012) Accounting for a nation’s beginnings: Challenges arising from the formation of the dominion of Canada. Accounting History17(3–4): 415–436.
13.
Baños Sánchez-MatamorosJGutiérrez-HidalgoFÁlvarez-DardetCCarrasco FenechF (2005) Govern(mentality) and accounting: The influence of different Enlightenment discourses in two Spanish cases (1761–1777). Abacus41(2): 181–210.
14.
CarmonaSEzzamelMGutiérrezF (2002) The relationships between accounting and spatial practices in the factory. Accounting, Organizations and Society27(3): 239–274.
15.
ColquhounPParkerLD (2012) Accounting and the state: An introduction. Accounting History17 (3–4): 283–286.
16.
CoronaCArmillasJA (1990) La administración española en el siglo XVIII. In: CoronaCArmillasJA (eds) Historia General de España y América, vol. X–2. Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, pp.87–143.
17.
De CastroC (2004) A la sombra de Felipe V: José Grimaldo, Ministro Responsable. Madrid: Marcial Pons.
18.
DeanM (1999) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage Publications.
19.
DomínguezA (1990) Carlos III y la España de la Ilustración. Madrid: Alianza.
20.
DubetA (2008) Un Estadista Francés en la España de los Borbones: Juan Orry y las Primeras Reformas de Felipe V. Barcelona: Biblioteca Nueva.
21.
DubetA (2010) Comprender las reformas de la hacienda a principios del siglo XVIII. La buena administración según el marqués de Campoflorido. Revista HMiCX: 20–52.
22.
DubetA (2012) La Construcción de un Modelo de Control de la Hacienda en el Primer Tercio del Siglo XVIII. El Proyecto de José Patiño (1724–1726). De Computis16: 7–54.
23.
FindlayPNewtonT (1998) Re-framing Foucault: The case of performance appraisal. In: McKinlayAStarkeyK (eds) Foucault, Management and Organization Theory. London: Sage Publications, pp.211–229.
24.
FoucaultM (1983) The subject and power. In: DreyfusHRabinowP (eds) Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, pp.208–226.
25.
FoucaultM (1991) Governmentality. In: BurchellG et al. (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp.87–104.
26.
FoucaultM (1994a) What is Enlightenment? In: RabinowP (ed.) Michel Foucault: Ethics. Essential works of Foucault 1954–1984 Vol. 1. Sydney: Penguin Books, pp.303–328.
27.
FoucaultM (1994b) Polemics, politics and problematizations. In: RabinowP (ed.) Michel Foucault: Ethics. Essential works of Foucault 1954–1984 Vol. 1. Sydney: Penguin Books: 111–119.
28.
FoucaultM (2007) Lecture of 22nd March, 1978. In: SenellartM (ed.) Michel Foucault. Security, Territory, Population. Lectures at the Collège de France 1977–1978. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.285–310.
29.
GomesDCarnegieGDRodriguesLL (2014) Accounting as a technology of government in the Portuguese empire: The development, application and enforcement of accounting rules during the Pombaline era (1761–1777). The European Accounting Review23(1): 87–115.
30.
GonzálezM (2011) La reestructuración de la Administración Judicial Local en la Corona de Castilla (1700–1749). Las monarquías española y francesa (siglos XVI–XVIII): ¿Dos modelos políticos?Madrid: Casa de Velázquez.
31.
IbáñezM (1986) Una visión retrospectiva sobre las intendencias de 1718. Cuadernos de Investigación Histórica10: 153–163.
32.
JacobsK (2012) Making sense of social practice: Theoretical pluralism in public sector accounting research. Financial Accountability & Management28(1): 1–25.
33.
JeacleIWalshJ (2002) From moral evaluation to rationalization: Accounting and the shifting technologies of credit. Accounting, Organizations and Society27(8): 737–761.
34.
KamenH (1964) El Establecimiento de los Intendentes en la Administración Española. Hispania24(95): 368–395.
LatourB (1987) Visualization and cognition: Thinking with eyes and hands. Knowledge and society. Studies in the Sociology of Culture, Past and Present6.
37.
LynchJ (1999) La España del siglo XVIII. Madrid: Crítica.
38.
McKinlayAPezetF (2010) Accounting for Foucault. Critical Perspectives on Accounting21(6): 486–495.
39.
McKinlayACarterCPezetECleggS (2010) Using Foucault to make strategy. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal23(8): 1012–1031.
40.
MalshBGendronYGrazziniF (2011) Investigating interdisciplinary translations. The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal24(2): 194–228.
41.
MillerP (1990) On the interrelations between accounting and the state. Accounting, Organizations and Society15(4): 315–338.
42.
MillerP (1992) Accounting and objectivity: The invention of calculating selves and calculable spaces. Annals of Scholarship9(1/2): 239–264.
43.
MillerPO’LearyT (1987) Accounting and the construction of the governable person. Accounting, Organizations and Society12(3): 235–266.
44.
MillerPRoseN (1990) Governing economic life. Economy and Society19(1): 1–31.
45.
MuñozJ (2011) El superintendente austríaco y el intendente borbónico. La evolución de un modelo de gestión de los recursos fiscales en la monarquía hispánica. Las monarquías española y francesa (siglos XVI–XVIII): ¿Dos modelos políticos?Madrid: Casa de Velázquez.
46.
NeuD (2000) Presents for the “Indians”: Land, colonialism and accounting in Canada. Accounting, Organizations and Society25(1): 163–184.
47.
NeuDGrahamC (2006) The birth of a nation: Accounting and Canada’s first nations, 1860–1900. Accounting, Organizations and Society31(1): 47–76.
48.
NeuDHeinckeM (2004) The subaltern speaks: Financial relations and the limits of governmentality. Critical Perspectives on Accounting15(1): 179–206.
49.
NeuDSilvaLOcampoE (2008) Diffusing financial practices in Latin American higher education: Understanding the intersection between global influence and the local context. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal21(1): 49–77.
50.
OrduñaE (1997) Intendentes e Intendencias. Madrid: Tres Américas.
51.
PérezC (2006) Patiño y las reformas de la administración en el reinado de Felipe V. Madrid: Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval.
52.
PrestonAChuaWFNeuD (1997) The diagnosis-related group-prospective payment system and the problem of the government of rationing health care to the elderly. Accounting, Organizations and Society22(2): 147–164.
53.
RahamanASEverettJNeuD (2007) Accounting and the move to privatize water services in Africa. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal20(5): 637–670.
54.
RobsonK (1991) On the arenas of accounting change: The process of translation. Accounting, Organizations and Society16(5/6): 547–570.
55.
RobsonK (1992) Accounting numbers as “inscription”: Action at a distance and the development of accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society17(7): 685–708.
56.
RoseN (1991) Governing by numbers: Figuring out democracy. Accounting, Organizations and Society16(7): 673–692.
57.
RoseNMillerP (1992) Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government. British Journal of Sociology43(2): 173–205.
58.
SargiacomoM (2008) Accounting and the “Art of Government”: Margaret of Austria in Abruzzo (1539–86). The European Accounting Review17(4): 667–695.
59.
SargiacomoM (2009) Accounting for the “good administration of justice”: The Farnese State of Abruzzo in the sixteenth century. Accounting History14(3): 235–267.
60.
SharmaULawrenceSFowlerC (2012) New public management and accounting in a Fiji telecommunications company. Accounting History17(3–4): 331–349.
61.
YaylaH (2011) Operating regimes of the government: Accounting and accountability changes in the Sultan Süleyman Waqf of the Ottoman Empire (The 1826 Experience). Accounting History16(1): 5–34.
