The availability of the accounting and other records of a religious communal society (the Harmony Society) provides for a study that adds to the literature on accounting in religious organizations, a need highlighted in Carmona and Ezzamel’s article in Accounting History that discusses: (1) the unique spiritual dimension of religious institutions and its impact on accounting, and (2) the ‘sacred/profane divide’ (p. 122). The Harmonists’ communal beliefs were derived from Biblical interpretations and were necessitated by the need for shared labor and resources. Harmonists’ accounting records were sophisticated but did not account for labor costs provided by members. The interplay of these beliefs and the greed of the leaders impacted the group’s accounting system and created a spiritual/profane divide. The study explores the interplay between the role of accounting and the community’s beliefs and goals.
ArndtKJR (1941) The genesis of Germantown, Louisiana: Or the mysterious past of Louisiana’s mystic, Count de Leon. Louisiana Historical Quarterly24(1): 378–433.
2.
ArndtKJR (1965) George Rapp’s Harmony Society, 1785-1847. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
3.
ArndtKJR (1975) A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society, 1814-1824. Vol. 1. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society, pp. 1814–1819.
4.
ArndtKJR (1978) A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society, 1814-1824. Vol. 2. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society, pp. 1820–1824.
5.
ArndtKJR (1980a) George Rapp’s Separatists 1700-1803: Prelude to America. Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press.
6.
ArndtKJR (1980b) Harmony on the Connoquenessing: George Rapp’s First American Harmony 1803-1815. Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press.
7.
ArndtKJR (1982) Harmony on the Wabash in Transition. Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press.
8.
ArndtKJR (1984) Economy on the Ohio, 1826-1834. Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press.
9.
BoothP (1993) Accounting in churches: A research framework and agenda. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal6(4): 37–67.
10.
CarmonaSEzzamelM (2006) Accounting and religion: A historical perspective. Accounting History11(2): 117–127.
11.
CorderyC (2015) Accounting history and religion: A review of studies and a research agenda. Accounting History20(4): 430–463.
12.
DickensC (1857) Little Dorrit. London: Bradbury and Evans.
13.
DussJS (1914) George Rapp and his Associates. Indianapolis, IN: Hollenbeck Press.
14.
DussJS (1970) The Harmonists. Pittsburgh, PA: Van Trump, Ziegler & Shane.
15.
EdwardsJ (1989) Industrial cost accounting developments in Britain to 1830: A review article. Accounting and Business Research19(76): 305–317.
16.
FairclothA (1988) The importance of accounting to the Shakers. The Accounting Historians Journal15: 21–31.
17.
FleischmanRParkerLD (1992) The cost-accounting environment in the British industrial revolution iron industry. Accounting, Business & Financial History2(2): 141–160.
18.
FlesherTKFlesherDL (1979) Managerial accounting in an early 19th century German-American religious commune. Accounting, Organizations and Society4(4): 297–304.
19.
GarnerSP (1954) Evolution of Cost Accounting to 1925. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
20.
HeniRV (1953) California’s Utopian Colonies. San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library.
21.
HoskinKWMacveRH (2000) Knowing more as knowing less? Alternative histories of cost and management accounting in the U.S. and the U.K. Accounting Historians Journal27(1): 91–149.
22.
JacobsK (2004) Accounting and accountability in the Iona community. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal17(3): 361–381.
23.
JacobsK (2005) The sacred and the secular: Examining the role of accounting in the religious context. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal18(2): 189–210.
24.
KreiserLDarePN (1986) Shaker accounting records at Pleasant Hill: 1830-1850. The Accounting Historians Journal13(2): 1–18.
25.
LaughlinRC (1988) Accounting in its social context: An analysis of the accounting systems of the Church of England. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal1(2): 19–42.
26.
LockwoodGB (1971) The New Harmony Movement. New York: Dover Publications.
27.
McKendrickN (1970) Josiah Wedgwood and cost accounting in the Industrial Revolution. Economic History Review, Second Series13(1): 45–67.
28.
M’ElroyA (1837) A. M’elroy’s Philadelphia Directory for 1837. Philadelphia, PA: Rackliff and Jones.
29.
NordhoffC (1966) The Communistic Societies of the United States. New York: Dover Publications.
30.
PaxtonJA (1818) The Philadelphia Directory and Register for 1818. Philadelphia, PA: Parker.
31.
PollardS (1963) Capital accounting in the industrial revolution. Yorkshire Bulletin of Economics and Social Research15: 75–91 (Reprinted in Chatfield M (ed) (1968) Contemporary Studies in the Evolution of Accounting Thought. Belmont, CA: Dickenson Publishing Company, pp. 113–129).
32.
PrevitsGJMerinoBD (1998) A History of Accountancy in the United States. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.
33.
SollJ (2014) The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations. New York: Basic Books.
34.
TysonTN (1998) Mercantilism, management accounting or managerialism? Cost accounting in early nineteenth-century US textile mills. Accounting, Business & Financial History8(2): 211–229.
35.
VersluisA (2007) Western esotericism and the Harmony Society. Esoterica7: 20–47. Available at: www.esoteric.msu.edu/Versluis.html (accessed 18 February 2019).
36.
WalkerSP (2006) Current trends in accounting history. The Irish Accounting Review13: 107–121.
37.
WilliamsR (1999) Management accounting practice and price calculation at Boulton and Watt’s Soho foundry: A late 18th century example. Accounting Historians Journal26(2): 65–87
