'Publishing your private affairs to the world': corporate financial disclosures in the UK 1900-24

Abstract

The main intention of this paper is to consider the disclosure practices of quoted UK companies during an important period of change in financial accounting practice, the first quarter of the twentieth century. The paper focuses in particular on levels of disclosure, as indicated by the volume of information provided, and on more qualitative aspects of disclosure practice. Our knowledge of the patterns of disclosure practices over time is deficient, despite the work of a number of accounting historians, and is based upon a limited amount of primary evidence. The paper reviews current perspectives on the corporate financial disclosures of the period, provides new evidence on disclosure practices in the form of an analysis and comparison of the published and internal records of thirty quoted companies operating in four major industrial sectors in the UK during the period 1900-24 and draws some conclusions.