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Accounting for stakeholders in a Catholic charity at the edge of the nineteenth century

Mariló Capelo-Bernal a *

Pedro Araújo-Pinzón b

a Department of Finance and Accounting, Universidad de Cádiz, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y

Empresariales, c/ Enrique Villegas Vélez, 2, 11002, Cádiz, Spain, dolores.capelo@uca.es, +34 956015389,

ORCID: 0000-0002-3545-8033 * Corresponding author

b Department of Finance and Accounting, Universidad de Cádiz, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y

Empresariales, c/ Enrique Villegas Vélez, 2, 11002, Cádiz, Spain, pedro.araujo@uca.es, +34 956015367,

ORCID: 0000-0001-5127-0092

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Accounting for stakeholders in a Catholic charity at the edge of the 19th century

Abstract

Using the positive model of stakeholder theory, this study analyzes accounting and

accountability in a charity founded in the late eighteenth century by the Catholic Church. The

findings show that accounting was developed to satisfy the heterogeneous accountability

demands of the salient stakeholders inside a particular sociocultural domain where Catholic

beliefs were prominent, accounting and business rationales were embedded in everyday life,

and Enlightenment and liberal ideas flowed among the population. Particularly salient

stakeholders conferring legitimacy and funds were the beneficiaries (poor sick people) and

donors (believers), who had rights to demand information about the charity’s activities and

achievements.

The findings also suggest that (1) ecclesiastics attributed to accounting the ability to

promote religious fervor, binding together the poor and donors as believers; (2) accounting

disclosure also played a major nonspiritual role reflecting the alignment of the Church with

Enlightenment principles, supporting the Church’s position in the public aid system, and

favoring the interests of both the charity and stakeholder groups; and (3) the Church used

accounting to support its traditional influence on social groups’ status and promotion.

Keywords: stakeholder theory, accountability, accounting, charities, Catholic religion

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Introduction

Accounting practice is widely considered as a social activity with potential to further

special interests by constructing calculative and administrative apparatus. Accounting history

methods have been proposed to elucidate how accounting intertwines with its specific

sociocultural setting (Hopwood, 1985). This perspective has viewed accounting as an artifact

that although working inside business organizations belongs to the wider social domain

(Hopwood, 1987). Nonetheless, most accounting historians have preferred to study firms, at

the expense of other organizations more specifically engaged in social control and welfare

systems (Daniels, Braswell, & Beeler, 2010; Walker, 2004, 2008); so accounting and

accountability in not-for-profit organizations has been largely underresearched, particularly in

religious organizations (Hardy & Ballis, 2013).

To the extent that accounting practices classify and communicate, they have a special

potential for (re)constructing the identities of individuals implicated in welfare provision

(Miley & Read, 2016; Walker, 2008). This accounting ability developed importantly in the

eighteenth century, when Enlightenment thought, with its emphasis on economic rationality,

favored the use of statistics to quantify and govern people. Every enlightened administration

needed to number people, goods, activities, etc.; and this will to quantify extended beyond

state agencies to individuals who gathered this kind of information in journals. Thus numbers,

specialist knowledge, and professional techniques became implicated in political debate

(Rose, 1991). In Spain, this importance of numbers promoted the use of accounting to manage

populations within government-supported organizations (Álvarez-Dardet, Baños, & Carrasco,

2002; Baños et al., 2005).

Several researchers have argued that accounting’s potential for quantifying people and

their social circumstances was useful for the moral persuasion and control of individuals

involved in various charities operating in England, Wales, and Scotland in the eighteenth and

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nineteenth centuries (Holden, Funnell, & Oldroyd, 2009; Jackson, 2012; Walker, 2008).

However, this literature lacks in-depth historical consideration of the religious beliefs and the

charity activity of the church, despite the high social and economic importance that religious

organizations had in the past (Carmona & Ezzamel, 2006), churches being the earliest and

most important predecessors of the modern welfare state (Fix & Fix, 2002). To the extent that

they consider disclosure practices (Irvine, 2002), studies of religious charities could also

deepen our understanding of accounting’s role in the sacred sphere (Booth, 1993; Laughlin,

1988). Such studies are necessary not only because of the social importance and ubiquity of

religious organizations, but especially because accounting and accountability can manifest

pressures exerted by religion itself (Mutch, 2016; Quattrone, 2004).

Addressing calls by authors such as Quattrone (2004), Carmona and Ezzamel (2006), and

Hardy and Ballis (2013) for research into account rendering in religious organizations, this

study analyzes accounting and accountability in a charity founded at the end of the eighteenth

century by the Catholic Church, Hospitalidad Doméstica (Home Hospital Care). This

institution operated in one of the most important cities at that time for the transoceanic trade:

Cádiz, a melting pot of tradesmen from all over the world (Bustos, 1990), where forward-

looking accounting practices could arise and early reporting practices may be observable

before the advent of promulgated stardards (Daniels et al., 2010), and also a cosmopolitan

center whose famous intellectual salons made it a very fertile ground for liberal ideas

(Martínez, 1977). On the whole, this context makes this location an interesting place for

accounting history research (Carnegie & Napier, 2002).

This study is based on the positive model of stakeholder theory, under which accountability

is a purposive means that organizations use when seeking support from stakeholders to protect

their own self-interests (Dhanani & Connolly, 2012). We contribute to accounting literature in

two main ways. First, given the lack of empirical evidence regarding the factors that influence

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the extent of disclosure and reporting practices, especially in not-for-profit organizations

(Atan et al., 2012; Othman & Ali, 2012), our research provides an opportunity to examine the

development of formal and informal external accounting communication in a charity. The fact

that the paper focuses on a religious organization facilitates observing different forms of

accountability (Payer-Langthaler & Hiebl, 2012), because in this setting disclosure and

reporting practices could be affected by religious beliefs (Yasmin, Haniffa, & Hudaib, 2015)

as well as by stakeholder salience (Moggi et al., 2016). We analyze how accounting was

developed in order to satisfy the heterogeneous accountability demands of the salient

stakeholders inside a wide sociocultural domain where Catholic beliefs permeated life,

accounting and business rationales were entrenched, and Enlightenment and liberal ideas

flowed throughout the population (Martínez Quinteiro, 1977). In particular, we highlight the

importance of beneficiaries (Cordery & Barkerville, 2011) and donors (Connolly &

Hyndman, 2013) as salient stakeholders giving legitimacy and funds, and having rights to

demand information about the charity’s activities and achievements: poor people as

beneficiaries and believers as donors were central to the Home Hospital Care’s social and

spiritual mission.

Second, our findings contribute to the debate about the sacred/secular role played by

accountability and accounting in faith-based organizations, especially when these

organizational practices are implemented to put “belief into action” (Mutch, 2016, p. 940).

Regarding the sacred role, our evidence suggests that ecclesiastics attributed to accounting the

ability to promote religious fervor, connecting poor people and believers. Concerning the

secular role, our findings also suggest, on the one hand, that accounting disclosure reflected

the alignment of the Church with Enlightenment principles by supporting the Church’s

position in the public aid system. On the other hand, accounting disclosure favored the

interests of both the charity itself and stakeholder groups. Accountability conferred legitimacy

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that allowed the charity to obtain social, cultural, and economic resources, but this

accountability also helped stakeholders achieve their own socioeconomic goals. That is,

accounting constituted a useful mechanism employed by Church to support its traditional

influence on social groups’ status and promotion.

The remainder of the study is organized as follows. The next section describes the basics of

stakeholder theory relevant to this research. The methods section explains the sources we used

in the empirical research. After outlining the ideological, religious, and charitable context of

the study, we describe the economic situation in late-eighteenth-century Cádiz and the charity,

focusing on its accounting system, changes in this system, and the accounting information

disclosed. We then analyze and discuss the available evidence and draw some conclusions.

Theoretical framework

Stakeholder theory is a well-established perspective for analyzing charity reporting and

therefore applicable to studying how accounting is implicated in the satisfaction of demands

for information (Connolly & Hyndman, 2013). Accounting and accountability are intimately

linked, since charity organizations must provide appropriate accounting and reporting to

stakeholders in order to maintain their confidence. A stakeholder is any group or individual

“who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives” (Freeman,

1994, p. 46). The positive model of stakeholder theory proposes that organizations require the

support of their stakeholders, which managers try to obtain through the legitimation of

organizational practices, accountability being in turn a key mechanism of legitimation

(Dhanani & Connolly, 2012).

Legitimacy is “a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are

desirable, proper or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values,

beliefs, and definitions” (Suchman, 1995, p. 574). Managers can actively seek and develop

legitimacy since, when it is gained, organizations increase their chance of obtaining resources

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and hence success (Díez, Prado, & Blanco, 2013), for both market-oriented and socially

oriented organizations (Samkin & Schneider, 2010; Sarpong & Davies, 2014). To obtain it,

organizations often adopt taken-for-granted practices because they are compulsory, because

professionals are conforming to expectations for rationalized management, and/or because

they fit a broader cultural framework of beliefs (Johnson, Dowd, & Ridgeway, 2006).

Accountability is a very complex concept that is hard to define precisely. In general, it is

“the duty to provide an account of the actions for which one is held responsible” (Gray et al.,

1997, p. 334); for individuals, groups, or organizations, accountability is related to a sense of

responsibility for what has been done, and for disclosing the results transparently. Connolly

and Hyndman (2013) state that for a charity accountability implies two main questions: to

whom is the charity accountable? and what form should that account take? The former

question involves determining who managers consider to be salient stakeholders, which in

turn depends mainly on whether the stakeholders and above all their claims have legitimacy

(Neville, Bell, & Whitwell, 2011). That is to say, these stakeholders are individuals, groups,

or organizations with rights to the account, so that the account is prepared for them (Cordery

& Baskerville, 2011; Gray et al., 1997).

For charities accountability and transparency are key to attracting external support; they

“need to explain which are their social, ethical and value-driven motives and […] how they

work towards achieving them and the extent to which they have been achieved” (Connolly &

Dhanani, 2013, p. 112). Organizations can use both external and internal and both formal and

informal mechanisms for such explanations (Samkin & Schneider, 2010). Public discourse

about organizational activities, performances, and outcomes is one key strategy (Connolly &

Dhanani, 2013; Dhanani & Connolly, 2012; Samkin & Schneider, 2010). External accounting

communication takes a wide variety of forms, such as numbers, tables, graphs, text, and

pictures, and can be deemed a social practice that collaborates in producing/reproducing

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shared meaning and reality (Merkl-Davies & Brennan, 2017). Among internal mechanisms

organizations can adopt whatever processes, systems, and structures stakeholders demand,

although these adoptions should be communicated in some way to stakeholders (Dhanani &

Connolly, 2012).

Methods

This study uses a qualitative research method based on a historical interpretative

perspective, sensitive to the context (Merino & Mayper, 1993), to approach a charity founded

in Cádiz (Spain) in the late eighteenth century, promoted by the Church. Enlightenment

thought prominently influenced this charity, some of whose founders were renowned traders

at the forefront of the accounting knowledge of the time. Secondary sources have helped to

contextualize the case in the contemporary beliefs and specific circumstances of the city and

its population.

The evidence collected represents the period between the charity’s foundation in 1792 and

the death in 1810 of the first secretary and right hand of the founder bishop. Several local

archives preserve the documentation examined for this paper, especially the Biblioteca de

Temas Gaditanos, Biblioteca Provincial de Cádiz, and Archivo Diocesano de Cádiz. We have

adopted a broad concept of archival material (Carnegie & Napier, 1996), so that not only

accounting information is considered. This allows us to understand what the accounts

included and excluded and how these accounts were prepared and used. In chronological

order, the documents considered are the following:

The founding minutes, explaining the details about the foundation and the rules that

would govern this institution in the future. Some of these rules had accounting

implications.

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The parishioners’ books, planned to include data on people who were chosen to

collaborate for set terms with the charity. Although these documents have not survived ,

their existence is known thanks to other primary material such as the founding minutes.

The annual accounts published for the years 1798 and 1809, where statistics and priests’

discourses can be found.

A document reporting the number of copies of the 1798 annual accounts circulated

among individuals, institutions, and parishes of the city.

A couple of printed documents associated with dramatic circumstances that affected the

population of Cádiz: a printed sermon given by a Cathedral priest in March 1799, asking

for more alms during the English blockade of Cádiz; and a public announcemnet

addressed to the Cádiz population at the end of 1810, when the city was besieged by the

French army.

Catholic religion, poverty, and the Enlightenment in Cádiz at the end of the eighteenth

century

In the Western world, at least from the Middle Ages, Christians began to think of poverty

as a sacred condition. Accordingly, the church became an essential mediator between the rich

and the poor. However, the schism initiated by Luther in the sixteenth century resulted in

Protestants’ arguing that an individual can be justified only by the free gift of God, whereas

Catholics maintained belief in a more active role for individuals in approaching God.

Catholics argued that an institutional church was still needed to provide papacy, priesthood,

sacraments, saints, and indulgences. Aiming to secure the Catholic doctrine, the Council of

Trent promoted the value of good works in general and the charity principle in particular

(Davidson, 1987). This perception of poverty remained predominant in countries like Spain

until the twentieth century, so that poor relief was assumed as a responsibility of local

communities, charity arising more from compassion than from the state (Kahl, 2005).

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However, the sacred character of poverty coexisted with other perceptions related to the

threat posed by beggars, which even Catholics recognized (Woolf, 1986). Accordingly,

around the sixteenth century in Western Europe there began to be movements toward the civil

control of poverty or at least the coordination of charitable efforts. In order to eliminate

idleness, reduce social disorder, and impede the public display of illness, a treatise writer of

that time, Miguel de Giginta, proposed creating shelters that would classify people by sex,

age, and sickness, and enlist them in work (De la Iglesia, 2006). Woolf (1986) argues that

these efforts should be understood as constitutive elements of a social order based in values of

family, status, honour and deference.

While in European Protestant countries workhouses were founded that aimed to force

paupers to work, this practice was difficult to transfer to Catholic countries, given the belief in

the sacred character of poverty. Moreover, Catholics rejected it because this relief formula

anonymized the relation between donor and recipient (Kahl, 2005). A paradox is present in

this behavior: the Catholics tried to follow the gospel that Jesus preached—“when you give

alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”—while at the same time

seeking the neighborhood’s acknowledgement (Imízcoz, 2001, p. 247).

But in the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment gave paramount importance to reason and

public interest, in Spain favoring the introduction of state reforms to regenerate the national

economy (Palacio, 1964). Economic publications, translations, and reprints increased in

Spain, in accord with the increasing interest throughout Europe in public discussion of

economic matters (Llompart, 2000). Population statistics emerged as a key technology for

producing the knowledge needed to govern, and were published in the press (Rose, 1991).

The Spanish press was composed in late eighteenth century by two official newspapers—the

Mercurio and the Gaceta—that behaved as main instruments of governmental power and

began to coexist with an incipient private press. In the last two decades of the century, the first

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enlightened newspapers appeared and the press became a social need, thanks to an

institutional support not always unanimous. Civil and ecclesiastical authorities were not

unconnected to the power of the press; in particular, members of the clergy frequently

subscribed to the official press, collaborated with the government in disseminating it among

the people, and even practiced journalism. Cádiz was an enlightened city with several private

theaters and art galleries where this journalistic explosion had a special echo. Social

gatherings and reading cabinets gave Cádiz the largest number of subscriptions among

Spain’s provincial capitals (Larriba, 2013). Between the end of 1780 and 1791, Cádiz boasted

three local newspapers (Sánchez, 2007).

In this enlightened context, poverty became not only a religious problem, but a social,

political, and economic one. The uselessness and dangerousness of paupers as well as the

autonomy and turmoil of the existing charities, dispersed through different religious

institutions such as hospitals, brotherhoods, foundations, etc. inherited from the past, were

considered threats to the state. Contradictory ideas coexisted and overlapped in the mentality

of Spaniards. Although they were trained in Catholic religion, their thirst for intellectual

improvement exposed them to new cultural tendencies that challenged their religious beliefs.

At the same time, an emerging bourgeois mentality demanded that all facets of human life

should be economically rationalized, aiming at material and earthly prosperity (Palacio,

1964). In this context, happiness was conceived as “that state of abundance and convenience

that every government should procure for its citizens” (Jovellanos, 1781).

The ideal of the aristocratic life, although deeply rooted in Spanish society, began to be

considered as an obstacle to the promotion of industry, leading to antinobility feeling.

Although previously regarded as the leader class, nobles began to be scorned for idleness.

Their contempt for administration and their irresponsibility regarding debts invited

reprimands from religious moralists and even the enactment of a 1784 regulation to limit this

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financial fecklessness (López-Manjón, 2004, 2009). Although socially accepted and supported

by Christian morality, they still needed to demonstrate their honesty and their practice of the

religious virtues. At the same time, as the honor of people involved in trade and industry was

in question, new regulations were enacted trying to dignify them in an attempt to make noble

status compatible with this kind of activity and to increase the common welfare (Anes, 2001).

As a result, throughout the eighteenth century, as the commercial trade with America

increased capital, many merchants settled in Cádiz started to climb the social ladder in search

of titles. The first stage was a knighthood. After that, they needed to prove their merit before

the king—and involvement in charitable works was a common way to show how the applicant

had helped society (Anes, 2001).

The Catholic Church next became the object of criticism and was removed from the

management of some charities. The need for virtue among the clergy was stressed. According

to Enlightenment ideology, religion could be useful in returning a sense of dignity to the

masses, given two conditions (Sarrailh, 1957): (1) a revival of the sense of the good and of

moral perfection, moving people away from nonrational behaviors, and (2) a reconciliation

between religion and reason. According to the Catholic Enlightenment thinker Gregorio

Mayáns, the intellectual training of the bishop was essential to reform the Spanish church and

culture (Mestre, 1968).

From the decade 1770–1780 onwards, baroque religiosity definitively weakened in Cádiz,

and the Catholic Church’s influence in the life of the city declined. After 1777, its diocese’s

bishops pressed towards an “enlightened Christianity” in which only a minority could take

part (Morgado, 1989). As also happened in other parts of Spain, the relief of paupers was put

ahead of more superficial demonstrations of religiosity (Mestre, 1979), these bishops being

involved in projects and material improvements in their respective dioceses at their own

expense (Sarrailh, 1957).

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At that time, bishops of Cádiz took leading parts in defending the church’s role in this new

enlightened society. In particular, Antonio Martínez de la Plaza, who headed the Diocese of

Cádiz from 1790 to 1800, stood out for his interest in charitable activity and the opening of

schools and workshops. He also took part in founding a Sociedad Económica de Amigos del

País (Economic Society of Friends of the Country). He personally sponsored the opening of a

new religious institution for the relief of poor sick people at home, Home Hospital Care.

Francisco Javier Utrera, bishop after Martinez de la Plaza’s death, supported Home Hospital

Care in the same way.1

Life in Cádiz between 1785 and 1810: the ecclesiastical charitable model to solve poverty

In the last third of the eighteenth century, Cádiz suffered the gradual suppression of its

traditional privileges in the trade with Spain’s American colonies. Nevertheless, from 1778

on, Cádiz witnessed a spectacular expansion facilitated by the removal of legal obstacles and

fiscal levies, and the increase in the number of American ports to trade with. Moreover, Cádiz

traders’ background and the good geographic location of its port gave it advantages over other

Spanish ports under these new circumstances, allowing it to retain its supremacy over the

remaining Spanish ports (García-Baquero, 1972; Solís, 2012). From 1783 onwards, the Treaty

of Versailles signed with England increased the safety of overseas transport, and the number

of domestic and foreign trading houses increased in the following years, with bigger cargos

freighted each year until 1786, when the markets finally crashed (De la Cruz y Bahamonde,

1997; Solís, 2012). In this period Cádiz had been governed by Count de O’Reilly, who

implemented numerous changes in the city, promoting public works, safety, and health, and

specifically relaunching the hospice of Cádiz in 1784 (De Castro, 1858). Cádiz trade

reawakened after 1787, and, in spite of some episodes of trade interruption, generally

1 In 1808, during the Independence War against France and on José Bonaparte’s instructions (Rodríguez,

2007), the Cádiz bishopric was declared vacant, leaving this institution in the hands of the Chapter of Canons.

Hence the last lines of the document shown in Figure 2.

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favorable conditions lasted until 1810. However, life in the city was difficult because of

successive epidemic outbreaks over the decade 1800–1810. In 1800, roughly twenty percent

of the Cádiz population died of yellow fever.

Its importance as a port made Cádiz a place where state-of-the-art commercial and

accounting practices could be acquired and interchanged (Capelo, Araújo, & Álvarez-Dardet,

2005). Many Cádiz traders belonged to general partnerships to which they contributed both

capital and working time; also very common were non formalized associations between

traders who aimed to purchase/sell goods in a particular place (Carrasco, 1996). As previous

studies have shown, in both cases, accounts were rendered only to those partners actively

involved in the business (Álvarez-Dardet & Capelo, 2003; Capelo, Araújo, & Álvarez-Dardet,

2015). However, there is evidence of some interest in making accounting information

available to other people related to the organization. For example, although much less

common than the types listed above, there were also companies in which some of the partners

provided only capital (Carrasco, 1996), such as the Compañia Gaditana de Negros, which,

after recurrent financial problems, reformed its internal regulations, seeking to ensure that the

books would be available to all its shareholders (Torres, 1973).

The traditional ecclesiastical charity model: Home Hospital Care

The reorganization of the hospice of Cádiz, launched in 1784, implied a threat to Church

power and more specifically to the Church monopoly over rents applied to charitable ends.

This threat, together with the economic crisis of the 1790s, prompted the introduction of an

extensive relief system organized by the clergy and contrasting with the hospice’s focus on

confinement (Morgado, 2008).

Home Hospital Care (henceforth, HHC) was a congregation set up on December 20, 1792,

which began its activity at the beginning of 1793. It had been promoted by the bishop of

Cádiz, Antonio Martínez de la Plaza, who ordered priests to spread the idea among their

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parishioners. HHC was an opportune answer to the economic crisis the city was then

suffering, resolving the problem of relief to sick parishioners at the least possible expense

(Antón, 1994).

The foundational meeting on December 13, 1792 was attended by 38 people, including the

bishop, 15 other ecclesiastics, 2 municipal officers, 2 knights, and at least 6 reputable traders

of the city. José de Echea worked as the secretary of HHC from its foundation until his death

in 1810. The bishop expressed to the founders his wish to have some rules to order the

practice of the establishment, in line with what they had previously discussed. The rules

approved included 33 items. The foundational meeting agreed that the original copy of the

founding minutes was to be preserved in the Cathedral archive, and several printed copies

were to be kept in each parish and given out to parishioners.

The aim of HHC was “to relieve sick defenceless people of both sexes; distinguishing

between those who because of their good breeding” could not go to a hospital and those who

did not go out of “‘neglect or ignorance.” HHC could help with the journey to a hospital or

with care at the sick person’s own place of residence.

The bishop was the superior authority, the perpetual benefactor of this institution, and he

would chair the general and particular meetings, to which the founding members would

always be summoned. The priests would chair the parochial meetings and the general ones if

the bishop needed their assistance. In each parish, a parishioners’ book would be kept with the

aim of facilitating the election of four or more ecclesiastics or secular delegates for each

month of the year, “‘so every parishioner could attain the merit of this good work” (Rule V).

Priests and the monthly delegates performed the daily work in collaboration with doctors and

pharmacists.

In the foundational meeting, the bishop promised 1,000 reales de vellón monthly, and the

founding members committed to let everybody in the city know what they had agreed, with

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the aim that believers, driven by their faith, would give alms for these charitable ends. HHC

needed a specific collection box situated next to the door of each parish church, on the wall

that had the most public traffic. The collection boxes would have the following sign: “Here

we receive alms for relieving poor sick people belonging to this parish and notice of their

addresses” (Rule XVIII). Occasional donations would also be accepted. But the bishop told

the founding members that collections and subscription drives would be prohibited, as “only

the sign on the collection box must speak to people’s hearts” (Rule XXII), alms being the

more secure source of income by God’s providence (Rule XIX). In 1793, the first year, HHC

collected 51,915 reales de vellón, and the following year almost tripled this amount. Together,

the disclosure of the rules, the book recording parishioners’ elections, and the collection box

constituted different means of disclosure conceived from the beginning to evoke parishioners’

attention and interest in collaborating with HHC, no matter what their position in Cádiz

society.

The parish priest and delegates recruited a doctor who worked selflessly, and sick people

who received in-kind donations were to be inspected—a practice that, like others of this

institution, “look[ed] to multiply private charities so that a public one resulted” (Rule XXVI).

Through this specific rule and its reference to the public, the religious charity was trying to

align with the enlightened ethos and its search for the public welfare.

Delegates were not to give their own money, the monthly surplus money of any parish

being applied to cover the deficit of another. When all the parishes had the bare minimum for

survival, if there was money remaining, the assistance given would be augmented. Again, the

rules are sending a message to the public that shows the compatibility between enlightened

aims regarding the increase of public welfare and Christian values focused on love for one’s

fellow. To conclude, rule XXXII stated that alms “depend on the mercy of believers who must

trust in the prize that is promised to those who give them.”

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In each parish, every day, one of the monthly delegates had to collect the money from the

collection box and to hand it over to the priest, who would open with his key a little box to put

the money inside and would record the amount in the accounting book, preserved also inside

the little box. In a similar way, the delegates with the help of the priest withdrew money for

expenses and made an accounting entry. This procedure assured the safeguarding of the funds

(Heier, 2016) and allowed fulfilling the rule that required a monthly report of the income from

alms and the expenses incurred to the secretary of the HHC. In an intellectual and trading city

like Cádiz, where the importance of mathematics was discussed in social gatherings (Martínez

Quinteiro, 1977), by making this procedure known to the public the charity was proving the

presence of reason in spiritual matters and thus trying to get the endorsement of the

enlightened. These records facilitated the preparation of the annual account, which reported

the income of each parish and how it was used for home care. This document was to be

printed and delivered to the parishioners “so that they would be aware of everything and their

fervor would be augmented” (Rule XII). In a similar way, rule XXXI insisted that these copies

were “for the public to be instructed and come together in their piety.” This use of accounting

to promote religious fervor is similar to the evidence provided by Miley and Read (2016)

about the utilization of the sermons by a foundling hospital to publicly demonstrate its success

in achieving the charity’s aim. However, in this case, the rule went further, assuring that the

printed annual statements were available not only to selected people, as in the case studied by

Miley and Read, but to all the possible stakeholders, and recalling a rule developed in a

contemporary company of the same city to assure the availability of accounting documents to

all shareholders (Torres, 1973).

For the period studied here, only the annual accounts that José de Echea prepared for the

years 1798 and 1809 have been preserved (see Figures 1 and 2). As Echea explained to the

bishop, the annual account elaborated for the year 1798 was shorter than the previous ones: “I

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have reduced the statement for the sake of economy and considering that [people] usually do

not read it in an extended way and so they inform themselves just with a look.” For this same

year, the primary source available shows that 770 flyers with the 1798 annual account were

printed and circulated among parishes, ecclesiastical and municipal governing bodies,

religious congregations, and other prestigious institutions like the city’s Tribunal of

Commerce (see Table 1 with the addressees of this information). As Heier (2016) has found

for a twentieth-century religious charity in the United States, with these accounting

disclosures HHC was going beyond the professional/official requirements of the time.

TABLE 1 HERE

FIGURE 1 HERE

FIGURE 2 HERE

Other instruments were also used to promote HHC’s collection of alms, such as the sermon

given in 1799, when the blockade of Cádiz by the English fleet interrupted maritime trade and

the number of people in need increased enormously. The priest reminded the parishioners that

more public alms were necessary: “the boxes of the HHC silently clamor for you without

ceasing.” In the same discourse, he insisted that he knew and everybody would know their

selflessness in a time of trading losses. In exchange, he promised eternal life.

The Notice (Aviso) published in Cádiz on December 27, 1810, played a similar role.

Through this leaflet, the HHC told the public that because of exceptional circumstances a

group of people would go across the city asking for alms. The document summarized the kind

of aid donors had provided in the past—foodstuff, doctors, and medicines—and the number of

people who had received aid—up to that time, more than 54,000. The Notice ended by

remarking that a donation “‘honors God, is coherent with Christian principles, relieves sick

19

people, indirectly eradicates begging and vices, and attracts rewards and blessings from

heaven.”

Home Hospital Care’s annual accounts

The annual accounts used a numerical chart with a line for each parish to report the number

of sick people relieved, thus reducing the poor people relieved at their homes to mere figures

(Miley & Read, 2016). This practice could seek to avoid embarrassing them publicly. This

statement also reported the alms collected and the various expenditures in which these

amounts were invested, such as pharmacy and doctors’ services, bleeding, and in-kind

deliveries. For some parishes, some of these services were marked as gratis, that is, pro bono.

In this way, the chart gave very visual information about the sort of public welfare provided,

but also about collaborators’ mercy. A last row totalled all the items for all the Cádiz parishes.

In a similar way, the annual accounts summarized the number of sick people relieved and the

funds spent since the foundation of HHC, specifying the data at least for the closing year (see

Figures 1 and 2).

The annual accounts insisted on the priests’ involvement in accounting. In the annual

account for 1798 a footnote explained that the “chart has been drawn up from the book carried

out by the priests, ecclesiastical and secular delegates,” but in the 1809 the text referred only

to priests: “The preceding chart and its explanation were drawn up from the accounting

rendered by the priests” (see Figures 1 and 2). At the same time, the Church claimed a role in

state affairs: “piety has not forgotten this praiseworthy work focused on relieving respectable

sick people, in which both the State and God’s service are interested.” The involvement of

priests and other ecclesiastics in accounting was enhancing HHC’s image and role before the

parishioners in general and the enlightened in particular.

Several paragraphs added information to the chart, identifying the main contributions and

specifying who had provided a certain service, for example, “the pharmacy service is free

20

from Mr. Pedro de Robles” (annual account of 1798) or “[the alms] have not been enough to

pay for the doctor” (annual account of 1809). HHC’s accounts were shown as proof of the

parishioners’ mercy, assuring their reward. For 1798, among the alms collected, the narrative

highlighted the bishop’s contribution and the three legacies received, especially that from the

count of Quinta Alegre, who bequeathed money to all the parishes. This year’s account also

noted, “To bear in mind: In the Cathedral the expenses have been 706 reals higher than the

alms collected, provided by the priest, Mr. Antonio Cabrera.”

Depending on the circumstances, these narratives were used to extol the contributions

received or to demand more effort from parishioners. Comparisons among accounting figures

were especially useful to emphasize the parishioners’ collaboration:

A comparison of the years convinces us that in the last year, 1797, in the harshness of

the war, the alms exceeded those collected in 1795, when we had not suffered its

effects; fervor and charity toward the poor emerging in 1798, the proof of which is the

alms collected in spite of the general backwardness that all trade has experienced.

references to war and scarcity were integrated in the accounting discourse trying to elicit an

emotive answer (Langton and West, 2016). This is also especially evident in the annual

account elaborated for 1809 (see Illustration 2), when each of parish’s priests tried to show the

lack of funds and the great regret that this implied for them. In an effort to stimulate the

parishioner’s mercy, they began the exposition expressing their opening balance and

continued explaining the origin of each known contribution.

Analysis and discussion

Mashaw (2006, p. 118) proposes six linked questions to address when researching

accountability: “who is liable or accountable to whom, what they are liable to be called to

21

account for, through what processes accountability is to be assured, by what standards the

putatively accountable behavior is to be judged and what the potential effects are of finding

that those standards have been breached.” We apply this general approach, already used by

Hardy and Ballis (2013) in their study of a faith-based organization, with the aim of

explaining the nature of the accountability we find.

Our evidence indicates that HHC recognized a number of salient stakeholders and their

claims as legitimate in the organization’s particular sociocultural context. The poor as

beneficiaries were strongly influenced by HHC’s actions and were also its stated raison d'être.

As Connolly and Dhanani (2013) argue, charities may achieve legitimacy by taking account

of their downward stakeholders. Although HHC did not disclose information to beneficiaries,

it included them in the information disclosed as an operational output (number of sick persons

attended), referring to the resources devoted to relieving them, and as a main objective in its

discursive narrative (sermons and texts), thus improving its accountability discharge (Cordery

& Bakerville, 2011). Parishioners (believers in general) were also influenced by HHC’s

behavior; in fact, its other ultimate goal, because of its Catholic nature, was the salvation of

the souls of the believers, which could be achieved by means of relieving the poor.

Accounting connected believers and the poor. Through almsgiving, the believers became

(mainly anonymous) donors, their support being required to fulfill HHC’s mission not only in

terms of values and beliefs but also economically. Connolly and Hyndman (2013) argue that

donors are key stakeholders although not direct beneficiaries, but in the HHC case,

donors/believers could achieve the greatest benefit possible in their sociocultural context:

salvation and eternal life. Therefore, accounting played a paramount role making visible to

society the proper social and religious use of resources, and donors/believers recognized

themselves through accounting as good people before God.

22

Religious rhetoric or discursive processes played a role in legitimation (Sidani & Showail,

2013). HHC often referred to God, trying to satisfy both the donors and the sick people. The

report for 1798 remarked that “The donors should expect a thousand blessings from heaven,

as they are offered to those who give alms and exercise the supernatural virtue of mercy.”

Similarly, the account for 1809 included one parish priest’s statement about his trust in God’s

providence, this time addressed to sick people.

Founders (eclesiastics, civil authorities, traders, and knights) influenced and were

influenced by HHC’s actions and demanded information about its activity and about their

collaboration with the charity. Simply establishing objectives aligned with spirituality (poor

relief as a means for the salvation of souls) and with the national interest as defined by the

enlightened ethos (struggle against poverty and begging) surely legitimated the organization

in the eyes of ecclesiastics and civil authorities (Suchmann, 1995). The social, political, and

legal power enjoyed by these groups enabled HHC to identify them, even before the

foundation, as salient stakeholders. Traders, as the holders of economic power in a

commercial city like Cádiz, and knights, as the holders of social capital, dying embers of the

Ancien Régime, were also considered salient stakeholders. In inviting all these stakeholders to

participate in its managerial processes as founders (the bishop and parish priests also being

managers), HHC impressed on its formal structure an element legitimated by the local context

of the time (Scott, 1991), allowing it to obtain cognitive and pragmatic legitimation

(Suchman, 1995), and to receive strong support from social, economic, political, and legal

powers.

Another strongly legitimated element was impressed on HHC’s structure: accounting. The

relevance that Cádiz contemporary society attributed to accounting, together with the

ecclesiastics’ interest in appearing as rational people, surely promoted the implementation of

HHC rules related to accountability, clearly reflecting HHC’s alignment with taken-for-

23

granted elements and giving it cognitive legitimacy. The founder bishop stood out because of

his direct influence, as he appointed the secretary as his right hand and partner to lay down the

rules. To the bishop’s Enlightenment ideas, the secretary added his experience as a reputable

and wealthy Cádiz trader (Ruiz, 1988) directly involved in trade with the American colonies

(José de Echea’s will). His business background and prominence can be inferred from the fact

that he had been designated by the city’s Tribunal of Commerce as one of the commissioners

charged with preparing a report for the government regarding the consequences of the 1778

Regulations for Free Trade (García-Baquero, 1999). Since characteristics impressed at the

time of the foundation are usually retained over time, they affect cognitive frameworks shared

by organizational participants and hence influence later behaviors (Scott, 2001; Tolbert &

Zucker, 1983). Once HHC was working, its public mission also made it subject to scrutiny or

observation by stakeholders, even the general public. HHC actively managed legitimation

both through its actions and by means of accounting explanations about organizational results

and behaviors.

From the beginning, both the rules archived in the parishes—focused on values such as

mercy, helping one’s fellow man, or anonymity—and the delivery of more than six hundred

flyers with the annual accounts to ecclesiastical governing bodies, congregations, and parishes

(see Table 1) helped to demonstrate the Catholic behavior of those actively involved in HHC.

Accountability was operationalized mainly through the annual accounts, in which the

(non)monetary statistics and narratives accounted for the amount of alms collected,

difficulties in achieving goals, particular donations, and expenditures on different kinds of aid.

The narratives about the difficulty of relieving all the sick in periods of financial hardship

were especially addressed to those who did not get aid from HHC, promising future help. This

is clear in the 1809 annual account, which explained how parish priests suffered because of

the shortage of alms to satisfy the huge numbers of sick people. In the same account, one

24

priest of the Cathedral reminded them that “God heard the cries of the poor and fulfilled their

desires.”

In some cases the names of prominent donors were not mentioned, as Jesus preached

anonymous charity, and the rules suppressed the donor’s name in the accounting books upon

his/her request. Under extreme circumstances, HHC developed exceptional forms of

accountability, such as the Notice published in 1810, where figures about sick people relieved

were used to demonstrate the merciful behavior of the donors in the past. Altogether, the

rules, the annual accounts, and exceptionally the Notice helped to prove that those actively

involved in the charity had behaved according to Christian moral standards and that those who

functioned as God’s representatives in spreading his mercy had correctly performed their

responsibilities. This demonstration of compliance with Church rules and Catholic doctrine

prevented a loss of trust in the Church and its authorities as well as a decrease in alms. That is,

accounting allowed rationalizing past behaviors and so justifying future actions (Richardson,

1987).

HHC’s managers also felt the need to show alignment with the enlightened ethos. The

HHC rules and the copies of the annual accounts submitted to the local government and the

Tribunal of Commerce (more than fifty in total for the year 1798, see Table 1) contained

relevant information about this alignment, as did the 1810 Notice. The rules’ emphasis on

accounting and the active involvement of priests and ecclesiastics in bookkeeping and the use

of statistics were shown as proofs of the prevalence of reason. This is especially evident to

readers of the 1798 annual account, thanks to the footnote added to the first chart. In the

annual account of 1809 this reference to the priests appeared again (see Figures 1 and 2).

Moral perfection was demonstrated in the alms provided by some priests and the bishop, and

contributions to the public welfare in the aid provided. The reference in the Notice to the

usefulness of alms for the eradication of begging and vices played the same role. The

25

stakeholders would judge from the accounts whether HHC’s active collaborators had behaved

in accordance with the enlightenment ethos. If they failed to do so, civil authorities and other

enlightened people could withdraw their support from the diocese and the local Church.

The legitimating relationship between HHC and the founders as salient stakeholders was

bidirectional. In return for the support received, through its own accountability HHC offered

visibility about the participation of these stakeholders in its activities, allowing them to

account for their particular behavior, and thus HHC helped stakeholders reinforce their social

positions. The bishop, parish priests, and other ecclesiastical founders felt accountable as

representatives of the diocese and local Church, to both the general public and ecclesiastical

authorities. Through their participation as founders/managers and their compliance with

Church rules and Catholic doctrine, they avoided a loss of position inside the Church;

moreover, by showing alignment with enlightened ideas, they intended to maintain the

Church’s position in the public aid system in an era when this position was beginning to be

threatened by reason (López, 2005).

The local civil authorities felt accountable to the governor of the province, other

authorities, and the local population regarding their struggle against poverty. The founding

minutes containing the rules preserved in the Cathedral archives were the first proof of the

participation of these founding members in HHC. In addition, ten flyers with the 1798 annual

accounts were submitted to the governor, more than forty to the municipal governing body,

and more than five hundred to parishioners (see Table 1). Both forms of documentation could

be useful to prove to the local population in general the local civil authorities’ involvement in

charity works, as was common among people of high status—a merit that might make them

worthy of social promotion (Anes, 2001). However, civil authorities were also interested in

showing (especially to other authorities) their alignment with enlightenment principles. The

rules were useful in this respect because of their emphasis on accounting and public welfare.

26

The annual accounts could also help to prove the implementation of these same principles,

through the use of many figures and statistics, comparisons between years, and cost

breakdowns by parish for the different forms of aid: medicines, doctors, surgeons, and cash

(see in Figure 1 the chart and the summary). In general, this enlightened discourse based on

accounting helped them retain their power in the civil hierarchy.

Other founders, such as traders and knights, also felt responsible to society about their

collaboration in HHC. Their social position depended greatly on the local society’s

perceptions of their charity works. The founding minutes named them, improving their public

image and therefore their social position (Imízcoz, 2001). Those who belonged to the

aristocracy needed to prove their contempt for luxury, their industriousness, and their

familiarity with administrative techniques in order to escape antinobility sentiment. The

figures and explanations that shaped the annual accounts created rational arguments in a

sacred context, satisfying the local enlightened people. The traders were specifically interested

in pleasing the official institution that had jurisdiction over trading matters, the Tribunal of

Commerce; hence the six copies of the 1798 annual accounts submitted to this tribunal. Men

who succeeded in enhancing their position before the Tribunal of Commerce might even be

hired as experts, as for example José Echea had been years ago.

Prominent donors belonging to respectable families usually bequeathed money in order to

promote their kindred’s ascent up the social ladder (Imízcoz, 2001). This happened often, with

entries made in the charity’s books and the annual accounts so that such pious behaviors could

be socially appreciated and rewarded. For instance, the annual account of 1798 noted that all

the parishes had received money from a known testator.

Collaborators in general, such as doctors, surgeons, and pharmacists, were necessary to

achieve HHC’s goal, although they cannot be classified as salient stakeholders. These

professionals supplied HHC with free in-kind resources, and the parish records and the annual

27

accounts documented their altruism, improving their social position. The first chart included

in the 1798 annual accounts showed that doctors and bleeding services came for free for both

the Cathedral and San Lorenzo parishes. Such publicity may have improved their

contemporaries’ rather low opinion of the professional competencies of doctors and surgeons

(Bustos, 1983).

Other people were chosen by HHC’s managers to collaborate as monthly delegates in the

day-to-day affairs of the charity. In exchange they received some acknowledgment by having

their names inscribed in the parish’s book. According to the founding rules, this book was

open so that “every parishioner could attain the merit of this good work” (Rule VI).

All of these almsgivers felt accountable to God for their fulfillment of Catholic doctrine,

especially regarding the exercise of mercy towards the poor. The figures for the amount of

alms collected each year in each parish were proof of their mercy and a collective way to

approach God, different from the individual one considered by Quattrone (2004). In return for

behaving in accordance to Catholic doctrine, the Church guaranteed the donors “a thousand

blessings from heaven, as they are offered to those who give alms and exercise the

supernatural virtue of mercy”. As the evidence shows, the clauses of this contract were

reinforced and propagated through the sermons given from the pulpit (López, 2005).

In 1802, after Francisco Javier Utrera was appointed as the new bishop of Cádiz, José de

Echea wrote to him regarding the disclosure of HHC accounts and its effect on the people’s

charity over the years 1793–1800. This letter shows the secretary’s interest in giving accounts

to the new ecclesiastical authority regarding the outstanding work done in the previous years

despite the difficulties. The content of the letter allows us to appreciate how benefactors and

charitable accomplishments were highlighted in the local society:

28

Throughout the eight years of its establishment, annual accounts of the alms collected

and their utilization have been prepared with the aim of stimulating charity and

satisfying the public and donors, the success of which has been witnessed greatly until

the last year by the number of sick people relieved in their homes and the huge amount

invested in this work …

The charity of this HHC, without state aid nor collections for its subsistence, is

admirable, although it has the more solid aid of Divine Providence, and it is surprising

to everybody also that in spite of the general disaster and shortage of trade, which is the

main furtherance of this local community, they do not forget to join together in giving

alms. (Antón, 1994, p. 536)

Conclusions

This research is focused on a religious charity that operated in an unregulated context

where the state was starting to participate as aid provider. The evidence obtained shows that

accountability was purposively developed through the institution’s rules to guarantee the

regular rendering of accounts before different groups of people related to the charity. Drivers

of this development can be traced to the charity’s interest in achieving legitimation from

donors but also to a wider cognitive social system related to social struggle against poverty,

ideas rooted in Enlightenment thought, local accounting know-how, and the role of priests as

essential intermediaries between God and believers according to Catholic doctrine.

According to the positive model of stakeholder theory, HHC had to meet multiple demands

from its main stakeholders, so it was required to perform an accountability process towards

them. More specifically, accountability was oriented, first, to obtaining critical resources

through legitimation achieved by demonstrating conformity with salient stakeholders’ claims,

accounting information being the means developed to give external visibility to the resources,

29

activities, and social and spiritual achievements of HHC. Second, accounting also gave

visibility to the collaboration from salient stakeholders, conferring legitimacy and thus

helping them achieve their own social goals and thereby their economic ones. As Dhanani and

Connolly (2012) argued for contemporary charities, in our study accounting was used to shape

outsiders’ perceptions about both HHC and stakeholders. Therefore, according to the findings,

accounting is not only an instrument for the charity’s survival, but also an aim in itself from

the stakeholders’ point of view.

The findings demonstrate the utilization of accounting for the spiritual construction of the

individual (Jacobs & Walker, 2004) and show how accountability and accounting can play a

sacred role (Álvarez-Dardet, López-Manjón, & Baños, 2006; Cordery, 2006; Jacobs, 2005;

Jayasinghe & Soobaroyen, 2009) in spite of the sacred-secular divide asserted by Laughlin

(1988) and Booth (1993). This study shows that ecclesiastics explicity attributed to

accounting the ability to promote religious fervor among population. However, the

ecclesiastical interest in being accountable to powerful bodies of the city suggests that

accounting disclosure also played a major nonspiritual role. Since Catholic beliefs permeated

all of life in Spain, the Church traditionally enjoyed an influence on social structure (Irigoyen,

2011) that was especially evident in its role as a propaganda tool for the most powerful

people, exhibited in all kinds of religious buildings and ceremonies (Chacón, 1995, 2011;

Imízcoz, 2001). What is new in HHC is that it is accounting that supported this role of the

Church as well as its general doctrine, substituting rational arguments for traditional religious

images.

Under these beliefs and circumstances, accounting information was developed as a

measure of Catholic behavior, efficacy in representing God, and implementation of

enlightened principles. This required measuring the exercise of charity for each year, so that

people appeared as calculable citizens in an enlightened nongovernmental environment

30

(Álvarez-Dardet, Baños, & Carrasco, 2002; Baños et al., 2005; Miley & Read, 2016; Rose,

1991).

Some limitations should be acknowledged when interpreting these results. First, the

findings refer to a Catholic charity operating in a very specific context where accounting was

embedded in many aspects of everyday life (Capelo, Araújo, & Funnel, forthcoming). More

research is needed on the role of accounting in Catholic charities, especially those that

operated in locations where accounting was less deep-rooted. Second, in this context,

although there was no clash between religious beliefs and the enlightened ethos, religious

beliefs prevailed in the management of the organization because it was led by ecclesiastics. It

would be worthwhile to extend this type of study to a charity operating under similar

accounting embeddedness and a similar involvement of both ecclesiastical and lay people, but

with management led by lay people. This would allow knowing whether there was or not

conflict between the sacred and the secular sphere and its possible effect on accounting and

accountability.

Archival Sources

Archivo Diocesano de Cádiz (ADC), Secretaría, Caja 922.

Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cádiz (AHPC), Protocolos Notariales de Cádiz, Legajo 1471.

Biblioteca Provincial de Cádiz, Folletos CLXIX-80.

Biblioteca de Temas Gaditanos:

Documento para la Erección de la Congregación de Feligresías para la Hospitalidad

Doméstica, Folleto 59, Carpeta 21.

Cuenta anual de 1809, Folleto 14, Carpeta 95.

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Table 1. Number of flyers delivered by HHC for the year 1799.

Distribution of the 770 flyers belonging to the

Hospitalidad Doméstica in the year 1799

Addressee Number of flyers

Cathedral 90

San Antonio Parish 150

Rosario Parish 100

San José Parish 40

Santiago Parish 90

San Lorenzo Parish 100

Parishes 570

Governor 10

Secretary 6

Bishop 14

Ecclesiastical governing body 30

Municipal governing body 46

676

San Felipe Neri Congregation 9

Three convents 24

Tribunal of commerce 6

Others 7

722

Source: Caja 922, Secretaría, ADC

39

Figure 1. Annual account for the year 1798.

Source: Caja 922, Secretaría, Archivo Diocesano de Cádiz

40

Figure 2. Annual account for the year 1809.

Source: (Folleto 14, Carpeta 95, BTG)