RT Journal Article
T1 Accounting for the liberal State and the Spanish seizure process of 1855
A1 Baños Sánchez-Matamoros, Juan
A1 Funnell, Warwick
K1 Accounting history
K1 Inequalities
K1 Liberal State
K1 Seizure
AB Accounting practices were essential to Spain’s transformation into a liberal State. The process began in 1835 as the properties and assets controlled by the Catholic Church and Town Councils were confiscated across the country, culminating in the 1855 seizure process. Informed by Foucault’s concept of governmentality, this paper identifies the role and importance of accounting in the enactment of the seizure process in 1855. The seizure was designed to address a worsening national debt and to replace the values and relationships of the Ancien Regime’s absolute monarchy with the political principles of liberalism. The intended outcome of the confiscation was to lay the foundations of a modern capitalist State at a time of great political, social, and economic turmoil. Ultimately, rather than supporting the liberal aims of the seizure process, accounting practices helped the dominant political classes to further promote their interests. Most properties were sold to people who were already large landowners and this confirmed the true aim of the seizure process: to increase their wealth and, thus, their political power.
PB Elsevier
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10433/15891
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10433/15891
LA en
NO Critical Perspectives on Accounting Available online 26 April 2023, 102601 In Press
NO Funding for open access publishing: Universidad Pablo de Olavide. The authors are grateful to the Research Project UPO-1380724 -Aportacion ´ de la Historia de la Contabilidad a la Historia de las Organizaciones.
NO Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla. Departamento de Economía Financiera y Contabilidad
DS RIO
RD May 9, 2026