Sources of power and infrastructural conditions in medieval
governmental accounting
The role which accounting plays in power and governance is a key issue in accounting history.
This study looks at a crucial development in accounting history, the emergence in the
12th century of Exchequer accounting. Exchequer accounting played a significant part in
the rise of the European administrative state. This paper uses Mann’s Model of the sources
of power to study the nature and role that accounting played in medieval governance. The
ideological, economic, military and political sources of power are shown to be underpinned
by key infrastructures such as accounting. The interrelationships between accounting,
other medieval infrastructures (such as the feudal system, administrative and territorial
organisation, logistics, coinage, and literacy and numerical technologies) and the sources
of power are explored.