Accounting Systems and Decision-Making in the Mid-Victorian Period: The Case of the Consett Iron Company

Abstract

This paper utilises previously examined costing material for the Consett Iron Company Ltd in an attempt to throw some light on how business in the mid-Victorian period made key decisions. The nature of the costing information available to management, its limitations for decision-making purposes, and how the costing system was developed in response to the problems facing the company in the late 1860s, are examined. It is concluded that the company adapted its costing system perceptively to cope with real problems, though the changes introduced may not always have been ideal as seen from the perspective of modern management accounting.