Accounting for the Nation-state in Mid-19th Century Thailand

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between accounting and the early roots of the nation-state in mid nineteenth-century Siam/Thailand.

Design/methodology/approach – First, the paper examines the theoretical inter-relationship between accounting and nationalism. Second, it relates this theoretical understanding to a study of the changing concepts, methods and structures of indigenous Siamese accounting at a time of transition when foreign mercantile influence was beginning to have an impact on the mid nineteenth-century Siamese economy. Third, the paper analyses how these accounting structures and practices came to constitute a socio-political instrument, which contributed to the administrative development of a Siamese dynastic state by the mid nineteenth-century. Finally, the paper studies the ways in which this dynastic state began to promote national characteristics through the use of its accounts to create a sense of Siamese cultural identity.

Findings – The findings emphasise the important role of accounting in the construction of political and national identity.

Originality/value – This inter-disciplinary paper highlights a general neglect in the accounting literature of the instrumental role of accounting in nation-state formation as well as offering a re-interpretation of Thai historiography from an accounting viewpoint. Moreover as an example of alternative accounting practice, this paper provides an analysis of indigenous accounting methods and structures in mid nineteenth-century Siam/Thailand at the point when they were becoming increasingly influenced by foreign mercantilism.