Suchergebnisse

El trabajo resume la conferencia que el profesor Esteban Hernández pronuncio en el marco de las celebraciones con las que el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) conmemoró los 400 años del nacimiento de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. En ella, el profesor Hernández Esteve describe, con detalles históricos, al otro Cervantes: El Oficial Real, el funcionario público que actuaba en nombre de la Corona española, como recaudador de impuestos, y como tal, manejaba la información contable sobre los bienes y los recursos recaudados.El documento está lleno de detalles históricos sobre las diferentes actividades que Cervantes desempeñó como representante de la Corona, y los problemas que enfrentaba en la época la labor de recaudador. Aunque para su construcción el autor toma como referencia fuentes secundarias, la narración es original en el enfoque de estudio y ofrece comprensión clara sobre la personalidad de Cervantes y su trabajo como contador, en una época de la historia sumamente importante para la consolidación de la contabilidad moderna.

Recently, the author translated Luca Pacioli's treatise De Computis et Scripturis into Spanish. During the translation, the author faced a series of points contained in the text which are not clear and which present some difficulties of interpretation.
This paper shows the main points that are confusing, what constitutes their difficulty, the interpretations given by different specialists and, finally, the interpretation given by the author himself with the reasons he had to adopt it. In this way, it is to attempt to clarify the question, to offer a basis for judgement to those who are interested in this subject and, above all, to submit the position and interpretations adopted by the author to open discussion.
Among the various doubtful and obscure points, the following ones are considered in this paper: the contradictions and ambiguities observed by some authors in regard to the treatment of the balance and closing of accounts; the discrepancies shown in several passages of the Treatise which give ground to the hypothesis that this Treatise is actually the result of the juxtaposition of two or more different texts, written at different moments and for different purposes; the particularities of two payment methods of the purchases which Pacioli distinguishes expressly (by ditta and by scritta di banco); some ambiguities regarding the way to keep the accounts with banks and official bodies; various instructions concerning the location of the accounts in the Ledger, the situation of the date, and so on, which seem paradoxical and contradictory; and other ambiguities.

This paper aims to describe and explain the beginning and evolution of cost accounting in Spain through the examination of accounting texts. In this evolution, three periods are distinguished: the late 19th century, the first half of the 20th century, and 1951–1978. In 1978, the official standardization of Spanish cost accounting occurred. Cost accounting first appeared in Spanish texts at the start of the 20th century. However, in 19th century accounting treatises can be found references to some aspects of cost accounting to which the paper refers. The traditional orientation of authors in the second period clearly reflects a monistic recording pattern, i.e., that cost accounting in combination with general accounting forms a homogeneous whole, with full-cost allocation on the basis of historical costs. The small differences found among these authors relate to a large extent to the fixed-costs allocation. This period corresponds to the introduction into Spain of the Central European school of accounting thought represented by Pedersen, Schmalenbach, Palle Hansen, and, above all, by Schneider. This influence intensified from 1951 onward. In the second half of the 20th century, German thought shared influence with American thought represented in the works of Kester, Horngren, Lang, Lawrence, Neuner, etc. The French Accounting Plan (General Chart of Accounts), published in 1957, also had an obvious influence on Spanish accounting scholars of this time. This influence is clearly shown in the Spanish standardization of cost accounting published in 1978 as part of the first Plan General de Contabilidad (General Accounting Plan) passed in 1973.