1870-80년대 美國 巨大鐵道會社의 原價會計實務

Cost Accounting Practices of the American Large Railroad Companies in the 1870s-1880s : The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company

This study examines cost accounting practices of American large railroad companies, especially focused of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company in the 1870s-1880s. Albert Fink, the vice president and general superintendent of the Louisville and Nashville, was the railroad manager who most effectively developed McCallum’s proposals for cost accounting and control. Fink’s aim was to determine with much amore precision the basic measure of unit cost per ton-mile. He recategorized existing accounts based on the nature of costs, reordered operating expenses into four fundamental categories, and then provided a formula for ascertaining the cost of railroad transportation per ton-mile. Moreover, Fink emphasized that such cost analysis was fundamental to judging the performance of different roads, justifying a territorial strategy and ratemaking. In sum, this study suggests that the basic innovations in cost accounting at American Railroads in the 1870s and 1880s became an archetype of today’s management accounting.