Portugal, 1761: The Role of the Businessman José Francisco da Cruz (1717─1768) in the Development of Accounting(*)

Year 2015, Issue: 8 - Issue: 8, 239 - 259, 01.01.2015

Miguel Gonçalves Maria Da Conceição Marques

Abstract

The paper introduces José Francisco da Cruz (1717-1768), the first general
treasurer of the Portuguese Royal Treasury (1761). A businessman from Lisbon,
shareholder in the three largest monopolist trade companies of the time, this accounting
technocrat made a decisive contribution for the transfer and spread of double
entry bookkeeping (DEB) in eighteenth century Portugal. The article is intended as
a study that explores which social and political agents were involved in the emergence
and development of DEB in Portugal. The main contribution of the paper has
to do with the systematisation of José Francisco da Cruz’s biographic features and
professional traces as an attempt to place on Portuguese accounting history
research agenda the study of individuals who were instrumental in initiating the
process of accounting’s social recognition. The paper examines José Francisco da
Cruz’s profile, his career and his relations with Portugal’s Chief Minister. More
particularly, we outline the role of José Francisco da Cruz in the development and
application of DEB in the Portuguese context: on the one hand, due to his managerial
positions in the Royal Treasury and in two monopolist overseas trading companies
concerning Colonial Brazil, Company of Grão-Pará and Maranhão and Company
of Pernambuco and Paraíba, organizations where DEB was compulsory by means
of their statutes; and, on the other hand, due to his political contribution for the
establishment of the Portuguese School of Commerce (1759) as Provedor [President]
of the Board of Trade.

Keywords

Portugal, Eighteenth Century, Double Entry Bookkeeping, José Francisco da Cruz, Portuguese Royal Treasury