From care of the poor to the great confinement: an exploration of hospital accounting in France

Charles Richard Baker

Accounting History Review, 2016, vol. 26, issue 3, 259-284

Abstract: This study examines hospital accounting practices in France during the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries in order to illustrate differences between the role and mission of the Hôtel-Dieu and the Hôpital Général. The Hôtel-Dieu originated during the medieval period as a place of refuge for the sick and the poor, whereas the Hôpital Général was created during the seventeenth century as a way of resolving problems associated with a growing population of beggars and vagrants in French cities. The accounting records of the Hôtel-Dieu appear to follow the charge-and-discharge system of accounting similar to that employed by ecclesiastical and governmental institutions of the same time period. Although the accounts of the Hôpital Général also followed the charge-and-discharge system, those accounts appear to have been prepared with the direct authority of a Treasurer operating under a Board of Commissioners appointed by the King, thus indicating a greater emphasis on internal control. The similarity in accounting practices for two very different types of institutional structures suggests that accounting practices do not necessarily change as a result of institutional changes. In other words, there may be a break in institutional form without a corresponding break in accounting practices.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2016.1235316

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