Merchant networks and accounting discourse: the role of accounting transactions in network relations

Adopting an archival-based, historical methods approach to the study of eighteenth-century merchant trading networks, we analyse base accounting transactions to demonstrate how accounting discourse was a critical conduit via which these commercial networks developed and were sustained. This study contributes to the extant literature on the place of social networks in fostering the growth of merchant capitalism by introducing the crucial role of accounting in this process. The use of social network analysis is novel in accounting history and reinforces the value of a combined qualitative--quantitative approach to historical studies of accounting.