The British navy’s 1888 budgetary reforms

Abstract

Reforms to the British navy’s estimates for 1888—9 radically changed the way that budgetary information was presented to parliament. Motivated by a desire to facilitate efficiency judgments about public expenditure, in the new-style estimates expenditure was classified according to object or purpose rather than on the basis of the traditional subjective categorizations. These reforms were instituted, in the face of strong Treasury opposition, almost as a fait accompli, by Mr Arthur Forwood (later Sir Arthur Forwood, Bt), Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Navy, supported by his senior minister, Lord George Hamilton, First Lord of the Admiralty, both of whom possessed unusually advanced ideas about public-sector efficiency and management. The article examines the background to and nature of the reforms and the unusual dynamics of the reform process, as well as attempting to ascertain their wider place in the history of governmental budgeting and accounting.

Keywords

Accounting history budgetary reforms government accounting naval history

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Black, J. (2001), "‘Full Circle’: The Cost Accounting Experiment in the British Army 1917-25 and the Corps of Military Accountants", Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol.79, pp.145-62.

Coombs, H. , Edwards, J.R. and Greener, H. (eds.) (1997), Double Entry Bookkeping in British Central Government, 1822-1856, New York: Garland.

Durell, A.J.V. (1917), The Principles & Practice of the System of Control Over Parliamentary Grants, Portsmouth: Gieves Publishing.

Forwood, A.B., to Secretary to the Treasury, 20 December 1887, National Archives ADM 181/98 (also in Navy Estimates New Form: Copy of Correspondence between the Admiralty and the Treasury respecting the New Form of Navy Estimates [1888], House of Commons Paper No.256).

Forwood, Sir Dudley, Bt, to Burrows, G.H., 12 September 1999.

Funnell, W. (1997), "Military Influences on the Evolution of Public Sector Audit Accounting 1830-1880", Accounting History, NS Vol.2, No.2, pp.9-26.

Funnell, W. (2006), "National Efficiency, Military Accounting and the Business of War", Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol.17, No.6, pp.719-51.

Hamilton, Lord G. (1921), Parliamentary Reminiscences and Reflections 1886-1906 , London: John Murray.

Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates (1887), Third Series, Vol.317.

10.

Hewgill, J. (1980), An Experiment in Government Accounting: The British Army Cost Accounting System 1919-1925, Third International Congress of Accounting Historians, London.

11.

Higgs, H. (1914), The Financial System of the United Kingdom, London: Macmillan.

12.

Navy Estimates New Form: Copy of Correspondence between the Admiralty and the Treasury respecting the New Form of Navy Estimates (1888), House of Commons Paper No.256.

13.

Onslow, R.W.A. (1937), Entry on Hamilton, Lord George Francis, Dictionary of National Biography 1922-1930, London: Oxford University Press, pp.388-90.

14.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) (1927), Epitome of the Reports from the Committees of Public Accounts 1857 to 1925 , London: HMSO.

15.

Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into and to State the Mode of Keeping the Official Accounts in the Principal Departments Connected with the Receipts and Expenditure for the Public Service &c. (9 February 1829) (Brooksbank and Beltz Report), in Coombs, H., Edwards, J.R. and Greener, H. (eds.) (1997), Double Entry Bookkeeping in British Central Government, 1822-1856, New York: Garland.

16.

Report for the Navy Estimates, 1887-88 (1887), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.52.

17.

Report for the Navy Estimates, 1888-89 (1888) British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.68.

18.

Report for the Navy Estimates, 1889-90 (1889), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.l.

19.

Report for the Navy Estimates, 1890-91 (1890), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.64.

20.

Report of Public Accounts Committee (1883), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.11.

21.

Report of Public Accounts Committee (1888), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.8.

22.

Report of Public Accounts Committee (1889), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.9.

23.

Report of Select Committee on Army and Navy Estimates (1887), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.8.

24.

Report of the Select Committee on Public Monies (1856), British Parliamentary Papers, Vol.15, Questions 939-4186. [also in Roseveare, 1973, pp.166-70]

25.

Roseveare, H. (1969), The Treasury: The Evolution of a British Institution , London: Allen Lane, Penguin.

26.

Roseveare, H. (1973), The Treasury 1660-1870, London: George Allen & Unwin.

27.

Wright, F.K. (1956), "The British Army Cost Accounting Experiment, 1919-25 ", The Australian Accountant, November, Vol.26, 1956, pp.463-470.

28.

Yule, P. (2002), In the Public Interest: 150 Years of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office Melbourne: Victorian Auditor-General’s Office.

29.

Young, E.H. (1915), The System of National Finance, London : Smith, Elder.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.07 MB