The Object and the Subject of Accounting Budgets: Evidence of Early Use by British Colonial Houses

Abstract

Foucault's name is synonymous with the human sciences. The human sciences are active in the creation of knowledge that is used for the purposes of power and control. This study draws a link between ownership and control to management accounting in the rubber industry in Malaya, since its acquisition by the British. With the publication of Zorn and Leigh-Hunt's Manual of Rubber Companies 1969, it is now possible to assess the importance of agency houses and the interlocking directorships of the various rubber companies they managed and the management accounting tools that were used in maintaining power and control over the rubber plantation industry in Malaya, during this time. It provides evidence that it is management accounting, unlike financial accounting which is seen as a passive practice, which provides a neutral or unbiased representation of the underlying economic facts, and plays an active part in maintaining people in power and in control. The paper further provides evidence of the exploitative management accounting tools that were used for exploiting labour.