ABSTRACT During the latter decades of the nineteenth century managers of limited liability companies, together with their advisers, formulated the parameters of modern financial reporting. This study comprises an in-depth analysis of the archives of the Staveley Coal and Iron Co. Ltd to improve our understanding of how an early limited liability company, whose shares were listed on the stock exchange, tackled the challenging question of how best to account for the erosion of fixed assets. It is found that the issue generated widespread discussion and disagreement both among and between the company’s directors, auditors and consulting engineer. It is also discovered that early attempts to account for the deterioration of fixed assets in a systematic manner soon gave way to the more malleable treatment that the existing literature suggests remained common practice for much of the first half of the twentieth century.

中文翻译：

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1863-1900 年固定资产侵蚀的会计处理。案例研究

摘要 在 19 世纪后期，有限责任公司的经理与其顾问一起制定了现代财务报告的参数。本研究包括对 Staveley Co. and Iron Co. Ltd 档案的深入分析，以加深我们对早期有限责任公司（其股票在证券交易所上市）如何解决如何最好地核算这一具有挑战性的问题的理解对于固定资产的侵蚀。发现该问题引起了公司董事、审计师和咨询工程师之间的广泛讨论和分歧。