ECONOMIC CLASS, SOCIAL STATUS, AND EARLY SCOTTISH CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS

Accounting Historians Journal, The, Dec 2004 by Lee, Tom

Appendix 1 provides detailed analyses of the figures in Table 1. This detail relates to each of the SAE, IAAG, and SAA and includes SAE membership numbers from 1880 to 1914. The latter come from data reported by Walker [1988, p. 256]. The various analyses reveal differences between the three bodies and are reminders of the importance of recognizing variations in local conditions when making sociological comparisons.

The SAE data in the first section of Appendix 1 provide a complete analysis of economic class for the period from 1854 to 1914. There was some downward social mobility between grandfathers and fathers of SAE founders. Forty-five percent of classifiable grandfathers were upper class compared to 26% of fathers. The upper middle class category increased from 50% to 66%. The lower middle class and working class representation was 5% for grandfathers and 8% for fathers. This pattern repeats for members in the period 1855 to 1879 - 89% were either upper class or upper middle class, with a switch from the latter to the former. For the period 1880 to 1914, however, there was a sizeable minority of lower middle class (27%) and working class (9%) members of the SAE, with the upper class category falling to 4%. These figures almost mirror those for the US immigrant group from 1875 to 1914, revealing that the latter was a representative subset of the overall group in the case of the SAE. For council members and office bearers, the pattern was different from the general membership of the SAE and consistent with the overall results in Table 1. The foundation council members were entirely from upper class and upper middle class origins and the configuration was more consistent with that for founders' grandfathers than fathers. The same is true for SAE officers between 1854 and 1914 with one-half upper class and one-half upper middle class. The 1914 council retained its élite origins as it consisted almost entirely of upper middle class individuals (93%). Thus, as in the overall data in Table 1, the SAE data reveal an increasing lower middle class and working class element in its general membership whereas its leadership was consistently upper class and upper middle class throughout the period 1854 to 1914. The Edinburgh data confirm the long-term inability of the SAE to reproduce in economic class terms with respect to its general membership while maintaining its élite leadership and habitus.

Complete and comparable data were unavailable for members of the IAAG and the SAA. As reported earlier in footnote 1, Kedslie [1990] reports economic class data for the period 1854 to 1904 for each of the three Scottish bodies but does not use the classification of Walker [1988] adopted for this study. Appendix 1 therefore omits data on members for these bodies from 1880 to 1914, although Kedslie's [1990, pp. 87-88] data reveal similar patterns to those of Walker. The IAAG and SAA data in Appendix 1 also reveal similar trends over time to those for the SAE. The grandfathers and fathers of the Glasgow and Aberdeen founders were predominantly upper middle class (73% and 78%, and 67% and 67%, respectively), consistent with the commercial and industrial élite of these cities. The IAAG foundation council mirrors this situation with 78% from the upper middle class. In Aberdeen, on the other hand, there was a lower working class element of 33%. As far as the 1855 to 1879 membership for the IAAG is concerned, there was a small increase of 11 percentage points from the foundational position with respect to lower middle class and working class individuals. In Aberdeen, the equivalent change was more marked with 33% from these categories. The US migrants reveal a definite inability of the IAAG and SAA to reproduce their memberships in economic class terms. With the IAAG, 59% of migrants were lower middle class and working class in origin. The equivalent figure for the SAA is 43%. Meanwhile, there was stability in the leadership of both bodies in economic class terms. In the case of the IAAG, 87% of the 1914 council was upper class or upper middle class. With the SAA, the figure was 88%. Overall, between 1854 and 1914, the officers of both bodies were predominantly upper class and upper middle class (100% for the IAAG and 88% for the SAA). The IAAG and SAA data in Appendix 1 therefore also confirm the overall impression in Table 1 of an increasing working class component in general membership, and of leadership reproduction.