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The role of government accounting and taxation in the institutionalization of slavery in Brazil

Rodrigues, L.L.; Craig, R.

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Authors

L.L. Rodrigues



Abstract

We use a theoretical framework based on concepts of historical institutionalism, institutional logic and ideology to enhance understanding of how government accounting and taxation helped to institutionalize slavery in Brazil by interpreting enslaved people as an economic commodity. We conduct an interpretive critical analysis using archival sources from the period 1531–1888. The social practice of government accounting and taxation produced and conveyed meaning using symbolic forms that ranged from everyday statements to complex texts and images. These codified financial realities in a way that reified slavery and influenced the historical trajectory of slavery. Government accounting and taxation practices were self-reinforcing sequences. They encouraged a structural inertia that was not conducive to de-reification of the slave trade or of slavery. We reveal how government accounting and taxation institutionalized government administration of slavery by according it social authority, social reality and temporal endurance.

Citation

Rodrigues, L., & Craig, R. (2018). The role of government accounting and taxation in the institutionalization of slavery in Brazil. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, 57, 21-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2018.02.001

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 6, 2018
Online Publication Date Feb 21, 2018
Publication Date Dec 31, 2018
Deposit Date May 2, 2019
Publicly Available Date Aug 21, 2019
Journal Critical Perspectives On Accounting
Print ISSN 1045-2354
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 57
Pages 21-38
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2018.02.001
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1297387
Related Public URLs https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-role-of-government-accounting-and-taxation-in-the-institutionalization-of-slavery-in-brazil(726d1da6-69a3-47bb-a4b5-a7e3ec3ae666).html

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