ACCOUNTING ON THE ROAD:
THE STATE AND TURNPIKE ADMINISTRATION IN
EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY BRITAIN
Sonja Gallhofer
Newcastle University
Jim Haslam
Heriot-Watt University
Akira Yonekura
Heriot-Watt University
Paper for Presentation at the
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference, Cardiff,
July 2012
ACCOUNTING ON THE ROAD: THE STATE AND TURNPIKE
ADMINISTRATION IN EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
BRITAIN
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses upon concerns to regulate the turnpike trusts in early nineteenth
century Britain. A key focus is upon perceptions and promotions of accounting and
related forms of governance in this context. This is a surprisingly under-researched
area given, as well as the key contextual dynamics, the significance of turnpike trusts
and road administration, reflecting, it appears, the biases of much history research in
accounting and beyond. Through analysis of parliamentary debates, laws governing
the trusts and parliamentary committee deliberations over the management of
turnpikes, an attempt is made to bring out how concerns are positioned in relation to
intertwined contextual forces that are also reflected in more general State-promoted
scientific-administrative developments then in process in Britain. The State in effect
was promoting a modern administrative system, giving weight to forms of accounting
and auditing, which from the centre was acting on the local to render greater
uniformity. As part of this a notion of governance by facts, concurrently implicit in
the accounting promoted, was fostered. Issues occurred in relation to State concern to
intervene in and control what were held up as matters of local consideration, clashes
between different groups with interests in the turnpikes or road administration, fears
over public exposure and concerns about how to regulate expanding economic activity
and the market place while managing the poor. Accounting and related practices are
appreciated as ambiguous and dialectical in the contextual complex processes focused
upon. Some insights for accounting and related practices today are suggested.
1
ACCOUNTING ON THE ROAD: THE STATE AND TURNPIKE
ADMINISTRATION IN EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
BRITAIN
"But having made these observations, your committee deem it necessary to
declare, that in alluding to general system, uniform plans, &c…they have
not any reference whatever to a general management by the executive
government, or otherwise; nothing in their opinion, would be so utterly
destructive of the objects they have in view. General information and
scientific plans, modified by accidental circumstances, combined with local
management, more or less extensive, as particular cases may require, will, in
the opinion of your committee, form the most perfect system of roadmaking that has yet appeared in any part of the world." (BPP 1820 (301)
II.306)
INTRODUCTION
In this study we elaborate a critical historical analysis of concerns to regulate the
turnpike trusts in early nineteenth century Britain. A key focus is upon perceptions
and promotions of accounting and related forms of governance in this context. While
research has provided interesting insights into accounting in the context of canal and
railway companies and the joint stock and limited liability companies governed by
general legislation (cf. Pollins, 1956; Yamey, 1962; Forrester, 1980; Edwards, 1989;
Bryer, 1991; Haslam, 1991) there is still a paucity of work focusing specifically on
turnpike trusts. Here we aim to gain insights into how accounting and governance
practices were addressed and promoted in debates over turnpike administration in
early nineteenth century Britain, a period that has been deemed crucial for the
formation of modern institutions and practices. The development of a transport system
that would facilitate the growth of an industrial economy was of particular concern to
the British state during the latter half of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth
century. This period is especially of interest as accounting was less taken-for-granted,
as a regulatory device that might be mobilized by the State, than today. And, it was a
context in which less was at stake for a formal body of professional accountants in
critical debates implicating accounting. Thus, a whole new range of insights may be
forthcoming from such an analysis.
2
Through analysis of parliamentary debates, laws governing the trusts and
parliamentary committee deliberations over the management of turnpikes, an attempt
is made here to bring out how concerns to regulate trusts are positioned in relation to
intertwined contextual forces (including the fostering of market forces, tensions over
notions of democracy, scientific or scientistic discourse, clashes between particular
groups and a State focus upon the national economy). The State is understood as in
effect promoting a modern administrative system, giving weight to forms of
accounting and auditing, which from the centre was acting on the local to render
greater uniformity. As part of this a notion of governance by facts, concurrently
implicit in the accounting promoted, was fostered. Issues occurred in relation to State
concern to intervene in and control what were held up as matters of local
consideration, clashes between different groups with interests in the turnpikes or road
administration, fears over public exposure and concerns about how to regulate
expanding economic activity and the market place while managing the poor (to use
the construct of the time). Accounting and related practices are appreciated as
ambiguous and dialectical in the contextual complex processes focused upon. Some
insights for accounting and related practices today are suggested.
The structure of the paper is as follows. The nature of the turnpike trust in the context
of early nineteenth century Britain is briefly elaborated. This is followed by an
analysis of official state publications (mainly select committee reports and legislative
documentation), which were concerned with the regulation of the turnpike trusts. A
discussion of the analysis then brings out important themes thereof more explicitly.
TURNPIKE TRUSTS: THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND A CONTEXTUAL
ANALYSIS OF THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
"Things had been done through processes which were in some ways more
open, less alienating, more communal and familial...principles of
reciprocity, duality, redistribution, centricity operated and emerged
historically...the movement to a market system; intertwined with a
3
scientistic and democratic mode of thinking - meant that some of those
things were lost."
(Polanyi, 1945, pp. 45-6)
Turnpike trusts emerged as a significant phenomenon from the early eighteenth
century in Britain and, by the beginning of the nineteenth, managing roads through
turnpike trusts was common. If the notion that a turnpike trust is a modern
phenomenon appears archaic to people today, turnpike trusts were increasingly
promoted throughout the eighteenth and into the nineteenth century in terms of a
modern scientific reasoning. Prior to the eighteenth century, a form of road
administration based on an older system of local parish duties shaped much British
practice (Jackman, 1916; Hartmann, 1927; Aldcroft, 1974; Barker and Gerhold,
1995). From the early eighteenth century, it appeared evident that many parishes were
unable to maintain the roads appropriately under this older system, in the context of
rising trade and expansion of industrial and commercial activity (Pawson, 1977;
Bogart, 2009). The turnpike trust system was advocated as a new way of better
ensuring road maintenance. The main ostensible rationale for the trust system was that
those who used the roads would pay for their repair and upkeep through tolls (Savage,
1961, p. 25). A further argument made in support of the trusts was that it would be
possible to appoint trustees with a broader social and economic interest in maintaining
the roads, although this is not so obviously sound in that one might imagine similar
individuals influencing the old system. Perhaps it hints at some additional but also
dubious motivational factors. A more critical insight into why the trusts were
established is that it was felt they could serve as vehicles for extracting a significant
surplus via the tolls. One subtle dimension of this was that more of the poor might be
employed on the roads and this could effect a reduction in the rate to support the poor1
(Webb and Webb, 1963). The trustees came to include parliamentarians and those
influential in the local power structure (noblemen, clergy, squires, farmers - and
traders), something adding to their effective legitimacy in the context (Webb and
Webb, 1963, pp. 120-4). Trustees were effectively given rights to raise money from
tolls and had responsibilities to maintain the roads (which often required them to
4
borrow). In some cases they gave others (toll farmers) the task of being responsible
for collecting the tolls in return for a regular rental payment. Profits or surpluses
would have been possible at both levels although trustees were meant to spend
surpluses, aside from paying off debts, on maintaining and improving the road
(Cobbett, 1824; Ginarlis, 1971; Aldcroft and Freeman, 1983; Ginarlis and Pollard,
1988; Szostak, 1991; Bogart, 2005a,b).
If a General Act came to regulate them (the first was effective from 1773), turnpike
trusts were formed under individual statutes in the period focused upon – regulation
from the centre but facilitating something beyond uniformity. The trusts can also be
considered as a new form of local government, breaking with tradition (Webb and
Webb, 1963, p. 121). It was under the statutes that trustees were given certain powers,
such as the power to erect gates, collect tolls and borrow money, and responsibilities,
such as the requirement to maintain, repair and improve roads (Albert, 1972, 1983, p.
33). The first turnpike trust was created in 1706.2 While initially it was envisaged that
this new institutional structure would be only a temporary device to effect the
improvement of a particularly bad stretch of road, the turnpike trust principle took off.
Soon the renewal of turnpike Acts became taken-for-granted and by the middle of the
eighteenth century turnpike trusts were widespread. Industrialization throughout the
eighteenth century and military strategy subsequent to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1749
led to road communications being deemed increasingly important and to an associated
growth in the application of the turnpike system (Savage, 1961, p. 24; Pawson, 1975;
Chaloner and Ratcliffe, 1977; Freeman, 1980; Aldcroft and Freeman, 1983). From the
early 1790s onwards, there was a significant increase in the number of turnpike trusts
linked closely to the demands of expanding urban areas particularly in the northern
industrial regions (Dyos and Aldcroft, 1969; Albert, 1983, p. 39). Of course, the roads
themselves would have stimulated industrialisation, agricultural specialisation and
urban and suburban growth (Clarke, 1978, p. 186). Savage (1961, p. 25) gives some
insights into the growth of the trusts:
5
"Ultimately, as a result of innumerable separate Acts of Parliament in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, Turnpike Trusts came to number over 1,100 administering
23,000 miles of road, constructed at a cost of an accumulated debt of seven million
pounds and raising and spending an annual revenue of more than one and a half
million pounds." (Savage, 1961, p. 25)
If in the same context about five sixths of all roads were still administered by the
older system of parish duties (Webb and Webb, 1963, p. 193), the figures in the quote
are still significant in early to mid-nineteenth century Britain. By the early nineteenth
century, turnpike trust administration had become a significant focus of the British
State. It was in the context of a scientific and political economy discourse, a
perception of a threat to the socio-political order and economic instabilities that
concerns emerged to somehow act to improve the roads for the betterment of the
nation and for the enhancement of an aristocratic and bourgeois socio-political order
(Evans, 1983). The State was being captured by a scientistic and political economy
discourse (Polanyi, 1945; Haslam, 1991; Gallhofer and Haslam, 1995). The turnpike
trusts were among that array of regulatory institutions (including the parish system,
the poor houses, the friendly societies, the savings banks and banking in general) that
the State was concerned to work upon so as to better manage society (Haslam, 1991).
And in the context of turnpike administration as in these various regulatory
institutions in general, an accounting comes to be seen as having a much more
significant role than was previously the case.
THE STATE OF THE ROADS: ANALYSIS OF OFFICIAL STATE
PUBLICATIONS IN CONTEXT
"Of the immense importance to the Nation, of improving by every theoretical
and practical means, the construction of roads, of uniting systematic
operation with economy and with skill, some judgment may be formed from
the returns of 1818: These returns make the length of turnpike roads and
paved streets 19,725 miles and the length of other roads 95,105 miles."
"When it is considered that this immense surface should be kept firm and
smooth, not withstanding the constant attrition of carriages heavily laden,
and of others moving with great swiftness, withstanding the displacement of
materials by horses feet, and the occasional injuries arising from the draft of
timber, &c &c, no one can doubt of the high importance of the subject, nor
of its having hitherto failed of attracting public attention in a degree
commensurate to that importance, an account of its having been usually
6
contemplated rather in detached parts, than as an entire whole." (Both quotes
BPP 1820 (301) III.305)
The system of turnpike trusts was increasingly suggested to be in need of close
scrutiny. Criticism reflected Savage's (1961, p. 25) view that the system produced 'a
multitude of scattered, unconnected Turnpike administrations' operating on a local
level. Before 1773 this diversity was further enhanced by the absence of a model
turnpike trust in legislation. Although model clauses had developed there was no
uniform legislation. The attempt in 1773 to consolidate the complex legislation
affecting turnpikes through the introduction of a General Turnpike Act (13 Geo.III c.
84) was, however, as yet in practice still only a marginal change. In particular the
legislation showed relatively little concern to intervene to control financial affairs.
The 1773 Act did not, for example, require any audit of trustee accounts (Savage,
1961, p. 25). As Savage (1961) emphasizes, financial dealings were not particularly
controlled in any systematic way. Rather, trustees, as their name suggests, were
deemed trustworthy. Other than Parliament's actual passing of the legislation whereby
the trust was inaugurated, control from the centre was virtually non-existent. Yet
increasingly it was perceived that the key ostensible rationale for the establishment of
turnpike trusts was being undermined as trustees granted preferential rates to certain
individuals or categories thereof (Webb and Webb, 1963).
Savage (1961, p. 27) argued that ‘by the beginning of the nineteenth century
economic necessity resulted in a widespread movement for better roads’ and a number
of complaints were being made in the public realm about the administration of the
turnpike trusts. The General Post Office was the first to express concern about the
state and safety of the roads, especially the route from Holyhead to London and to put
pressure on the government to facilitate the improvement of the roads (ibid.). The
government responded by setting up Parliamentary committees to investigate the state
of the roads and to make recommendations as to how to improve the situation.3
7
The parliamentary committees assembled were concerned to hear from those giving
evidence their criticisms of the system of road management. Witnesses stressed that
an important explanation for the bad state of the roads was their poor management.
Several issues were raised in this context. An analysis of the reports and the evidence
given to the committees suggests that the following issues were perceived to be of
greatest importance: the qualification and competence of people employed in the
management (broadly interpreted) of the trusts, financial mismanagement and the
structure of the turnpike system. We elaborate upon these issues below.
Qualifications of surveyor-managers
Each turnpike trust employed a surveyor (or surveyors) who was (were) responsible
for maintaining the roads in proper condition. The position of surveyor was thus
clearly an important one within the trust. Evidence given to the committees indicated
great concern about surveyor work in practice. The evidence given by James
McAdam (son of the famous road engineer John Loudon McAdam), who had been
appointed general surveyor of several turnpike trusts, includes the following:
In what state did you find the executive department of these roads when you
took charge of them? ... I found in Cheshunt three surveyors, the trust being
divided into three districts. One of the surveyors was an infirm old man,
another a carpenter and a coal-merchant. I found on the Wades-mill trust
three surveyors also, and the trust divided into three districts; one of these
surveyors was a very old man, another a publican at Buckland, and the other
a baker at Backway, with a salary of fourteen shillings a week each. I found
on the Royston road a publican as surveyor there; and I found at Huntingdon
a bedridden old man who had not been out of house for several months, and
who had been allowed by the commissioners to apply to a carpenter in the
town for assistance, and to whom the commissioners allowed twenty pounds
per annum; this person who accompanied me in the survey of the roads,
stated, that he could give but little attention to the management of the roads
the salary being so small. (BPP 1819 (509) V.373; see also the evidence of
William Smith Tootsell, Clerk of the Edgware Road)
It was argued that it was because the surveyors were poorly qualified that the roads
were in such bad condition, a view reflected in the evidence given to the committee
by Benjamin Farey, who had taken over as surveyor of the Whitechapel Road:
8
"In what situation did you find the road at the time of your undertaking the
management? - I found the Whitechapel road in a dreadful state partly from the
neglect of the surveyor, in laying on foul and improper materials. In the autumn of
1809, it was almost impassable." (BPP 1819 (509) V.377-8)
Concerns about lack of qualification and the differing backgrounds of the surveyors
reflected the tendency in this context to promote the notion that road management be
more scientific with uniform standards. Engineers such as John Loudon McAdam and
Thomas Telford had attempted to develop ways of improving roads based on
scientific insights considered advanced in the context. They sought to find ways how
technical improvements to e.g. wheels and the weight of carriages could help keep the
road surface in good condition (Spiro, 1950, 1956; Savage, 1961). They were
attempting to develop forms of management applicable to all roads and thus were
particularly concerned about the diverse and local nature of the turnpike trusts. In the
evidence we see a clear push towards the development of an expert profession that
would apply universally a uniform body of knowledge to road management. Henry
Parnell, for example, refers to the new managerial arrangements of the Shrewsbury to
Holyhead Road as follows:
"The leading principle upon which the Act was framed, and upon which it differs from
all other turnpike acts is, that the number of commissioners shall consist of no more
than fifteen; there is this further essential enactment in it that the commissioners must
employ a professional civil engineer as their surveyor for the whole line of the road."
(BPP 1820 (301) II.311)
Financial mismanagement
Alongside road making, maintaining and improving, an important part of the
discourse of the time was promotion of a scientistic road management in a broader
sense, and in particular financial management as an integral and crucial part of this.
Webb and Webb (1963) echo concerns of the time when they suggest that aspects of
the financial management of the turnpike amounted to fraud, especially given how
turnpike trusts had been promoted as legitimate. For Webb and Webb (1963, p. 216):
9
"...the cost of collection, including the waste by peculation, fraud and swollen profits
of the toll-farmers, was relatively enormous."
It was possible for toll-farmers to profit via crude fraud facilitated by toll pricing
complexity. When a lump sum was paid to the trustees by officers in return for the
effective right to retain revenues (similar arrangements being made for road repairs
and even for treasury management) this could also promote fraud and excess profitmaking via toll-farming (Webb and Webb, 1963, pp. 119, 131, 177-8). Webb and
Webb (1963, p. 121) further suggest that the 1773 Consolidation Act operated in the
interests of the trustees (as well as other private parties involved in the trust's
operations) rather than the public in doing little to prevent fraud or extravagance.
Such criticisms of turnpike management were strongly made in the early nineteenth
century. According to a writer in the Edinburgh Review of October 1819 'Road
Commissioners are the only persons entrusted by Parliament to levy a large revenue
from the public without being required to account in any way for what they receive'
(quoted in Webb and Webb, 1963, p. 142). John Loudon McAdam made the
following statement in his evidence to the 1819 committee:
"But I should greatly mislead the Committee if I did not inform them, that skill in the
operative part of road-making cannot alone produce a reformation of the multitude of
abuses that are practiced in almost every part of the country, in the management of
roads and funds. These abuses can only be put down by officers in the situation of
gentlemen, who must enjoy the confidence, and have the support of commissioners
that the public money is judiciously and usefully, as well as honestly expended,
without this control and superintendence an end cannot be put to the waste of public
money, and all the various modes that are injurious to the public interest, the amount
of which would appear incredible, could it be ascertained; but which, I conscientiously
believe, amounts to one eighth of the road revenue of the Kingdom at large, and to a
much greater proportion near London." (BPP 1819 (509) V.358)
The committee asked if he meant that frauds amounted to one eighth of the road
revenue, to which he responded:
"No, not direct frauds, I call it mis-application; it must not be concealed, that the
temptations with which, even a superior officer will be assailed, the facility of yielding
to them, and the impunity with which transgression may be committed, require great
delicacy in the selection of persons to fill the situation; and encouragement to make
this profession must be in proportion to the quality of the person required." (BPP 1819
(509) V.358)
10
In this statement we find a concern to advance the case for a profession in the area of
financial management of the roads that drew upon those deemed honourable.
Accounting was deemed objective and factual if it was otherwise bound up in a
scientific approach concerned to secure better economic operations. There was here a
move towards a profession with a body of knowledge and a code of ethics facilitating
better roads in the public interest. McAdam also saw that public money was misused
and misapplied, about which he was especially concerned:
"I think the road revenue is less protected than any other part of the public
expenditure, and, though it is very large, it may be considered, I think, almost
unprotected, under the present system of law." (BPP 1819 (509) V.367)
McAdam's evidence had particular weight as together with his sons’ assistance, he
had investigated and helped to manage a significant number of turnpike trusts (Spiro,
1956). Another issue concerning financial management of trusts coming up in the
committee's discussion with McAdam that had raised public concern was the increase
in the debt held by trusts. Trusts could borrow and there was a perception that they
were borrowing and increasing tolls without any significant public benefit. McAdam
expressed his anxieties about this, when questioned by the committee:
"Do not you believe that the present system of maintaining roads is the means of a
continued increase of expense in the debt and tolls throughout the kingdom? - I think
that the debt is increasing very much throughout the kingdom, and that the debt is
perhaps greater than gentleman in parliament are aware of; at present tolls are
increasing." (BPP 1819 (509) V.368)
The committee sought to investigate the relationship between the increase of tolls and
debts and road improvement. McAdam expressed strong views:
"Do you consider that there is a corresponding improvement in the roads, in
proportion to the increase of the tolls and debts? - By no means; my belief is, that
where the greatest expense is, there the worse management is, or rather, that the worst
management produces the greatest expense." (BPP 1819 (509) V.368).
11
He maintained that a gradual diminution of debts and tolls would bring a great
improvement if this was combined with a proper application of funds (ibid.).
McAdam felt the practice of using road revenue to employ paupers at a 'considerable
rate' would have to be reconsidered (ibid.). There were also suggestions in this context
that the work done on the roads by the poor was not very satisfactory (Webb and
Webb, 1963). For McAdam, that 'the road revenue has gone to the assistance of the
poor rate in that way' (ibid.) was of concern. Bringing the poor explicitly into the
analysis at this juncture, however, it has to be pointed out that the poor were not
getting a particularly good deal: attempts to reduce the poor rates by having the poor
work on the roads were not confined to turnpikes but were common in those roads
administered under the older parish system, the parish of Minchinhampton resolving:
"...that the best means of providing for the able poor will be to consolidate the
highway rates of the parish, and employ such poor in repairing such highways, and in
sloping the quarries of the common, so as to render them less dangerous; that the price
to be paid by the parish for labour shall be three-fifths of such sum as shall be named
by Mr. Smart as a fair compensation." (Webb and Webb, 1963, pp. 198-9)
It had been felt that turnpikes, deemed to be financially more 'efficient' than the parish
system, would be able to employ more paupers and cut into the poor rate further.
The 1819 committee gave weight to calls for proper management in summarising that
its investigation 'establishes the fact that the general state of the Turnpike Roads in
England and Wales is extremely defective, but at the same time proves that proper
management is alone wanted to effect the most desirable information' (BPP 1819
(509), V.339, p. 4). The committee echoed here McAdam who, asked how a decrease
in expenses could be achieved, argued:
"By introducing a much better mode of management, it would occasion more
regularity in the mode of keeping accounts, it would introduce a diminution of
expense materially in horse labour, and in various other things; that, I think upon the
whole, the diminution of expense by such regulation would be found very great
indeed." (BPP 1819 (509), V.368)
12
We shall return later to the close association between better management, more
regularity in the mode of keeping accounts and reduced cost.
Lack of uniformity in the turnpike trust system
In the evidence given to the committee we find concern about lack of uniformity in
the turnpike trust system. Turnpike trusts varied in size considerably and followed
different procedures and practices. This was understood to contribute to road
management problems: e.g., the smallness of some trusts did not allow for proper
measures to be taken as the cost of these could not be met by the trust. Benjamin
Farey, surveyor of the Whitechapel Road, explained to the committee:
"At present, the separate trusts are so exceedingly different in extent, many of them
extending only three, four and five miles, while others have fifty or a hundred miles of
road under their trusts, that it seems impracticable, in many trusts, to employ a very
skilful and competent surveyor, on account of the great and unnecessary expense that
would be incurred on the short lengths of road..." (BPP 1819 (509), V.383)
The evidence of James Walker, civil engineer, expressed a perception of somewhat
chaotic management of trusts and poor organizing of their responsibilities:
"When the highways in a county are under the management of trustees, it is common
to divide them, and to assign a particular length to the trustees who live near it,
without employing any person in the capacity of a surveyor. When this is the case, the
state of repair depends much upon the observation and attention of the trustees; and
the change in the state of the road often marks out the change of superintendence...it is
not to be expected that trustees generally can both understand, and have so great a
relish for serving the public, as that the detail of the repairs of roads, if imposed on
them, will be always executed with the attention they require." (BPP 1819 (509),
V.393)
Another problematic aspect in management and organization of the trusts reported to
the committee was the differences existing between the trusts in the number of their
commissioners. Sometimes it was perceived that there were far too many, as in the
evidence of Thomas Julian:
13
"What number of acting commissioners are there in your trust? - Upon the Brentford
trust there are 112; when the act was passed I believe there were 113."
"How many usually attend your board? - ...that depends a great deal upon the weather;
whether gentlemen can come or not. I generally send notices to seventy-five.
Sometimes we do not have more than ten, fifteen or twenty."
"Are the trustees generally farmers or London or country gentlemen? - Some of them
are London gentlemen who have houses in the neighbourhood; gentlemen of fortunes
and magistrates." (BPP 1820 (301) II.322)
A similar view was expressed by Samuel Purkis:
"What number of acting Commissioner are there in your trust? - Two hundred in all;
but the acting commissioners perhaps are thirty."
"Can you conceive that any number approaching two hundred is at all necessary? Not in the least." (BPP 1820 (301) II.318)
Henry Parnell argued:
"...I am convinced that the leading defect of the existing turnpike system, consists in
the limited extent of the trusts, and the numbers of commissioners; and that almost all
the evils which prevail so generally in road-management, may be traced to this
source." (BPP 1820 (301) II. 322)
Parnell raises issues important given the great diversity and in some cases apparent
lack of viability of trusts.
Thus, the committee and those bringing evidence to it were concerned with
substantive issues about surveyor qualification and financial mismanagement that
seem integral to a general issue about the lack of a scientific uniformity. In responding
to issues raised, the committees and its witnesses promoted application of scientific
and uniform management practices and relatedly the consolidation of the many trusts.
Next we analyze suggestions made as to how road management could be improved.
14
IMPROVING
THE
ROADS
THROUGH
GOVERNANCE
AND
ACCOUNTING
Several recommendations were made to the committee for the improvement of the
management of the turnpike trusts. Accounting was an important constituent of
suggestions made.
Consolidation of trusts under uniform principles of management
In the evidence offered to the various committees, considerable weight was given to
the notion that it was lack of uniformity including great variety in the size of the trusts
that was at the heart of road management problems. Further, it was felt that
consolidation of trusts would allow for the application of a uniform system of
scientific road management. For John Loudon McAdam, to improve the roads around
London it would be important to consolidate the many trusts into one trust with one
set of commissioners (BPP 1819 (509) V.364-5):
"...no other means whatever can be devised to get the London roads improved, except
consolidating the trusts under one hand, or one set of commissioners, or some body
that shall control the whole."
His own system of road management, already introduced to several trusts4, was
discussed favourably by the committee as a scientific system of road management for
universal application. Notions of uniform scientific road management and road
making/maintaining and of consolidating trusts were clearly promoted by those giving
evidence. James McAdam, John's son, reported positively on changes he had already
implemented in his role as general surveyor for several turnpikes:
"...with the permission of the trustees, I appointed upon each trust an active subsurveyor, whom I required ... to have no other occupation whatever." (BPP 1819 (509)
V.373)
15
With many small, disunited trusts, James McAdam felt that appointing general
surveyors was very costly. Consolidating trusts would allow for economies of scale:
"...my only object...is to show that unless a district of roads are united, the expense of a
general superintendence would not be paid by any salary such trust could be justified in
giving." (BPP 1819 (509) V.373)
Several witnesses benefiting from involvement of the family McAdam in the trusts
referred to how poor were the road conditions before a McAdam had taken over (e.g.
William Dowdeswell, BPP 1819 (509) V.373). A number of witnesses who were trust
commissioners confirmed that, through their introduction of a McAdam-influenced
new system of road management, neither expenses nor tolls had increased. The Post
Office was very supportive of McAdam's system as uniform scientific road
management. Charles Johnson, surveyor and Superintendent of Mail Coaches argued:
"I may add, that although so much has been accomplished, the Post Master General
could still expedite the conveyance of the mails, and bring the arrangements of the
posts nearer to perfection, if the roads were universally as much improved as the
practice of Mr McAdam's plan could effect." (BPP 1820 (301) II.314)
Further, an improvement in road management was understood as affecting an increase
in Post Office revenues (BPP 1820 (301) II. 315).
A Committee discussing the possibility of consolidating the turnpike trusts around
London under 'the management of a single Board of Commissioners' provided the
following rationale for this:
"...such a measure must greatly tend to improve the roads, to save expense, and to hold
forth an example that cannot fail of being rapidly initiated in all parts of the
country...Your committee submit that the experiment of uniting trusts for public
purposes has now been actually made, and with the best possible success on the line of
road between Shrewsbury and Holyhead; where first a Parliamentary Commission,
and then a Board of fifteen Commissioners, established in the place of various local
Trusts, by employing a scientific surveyor, and by conducting all their affairs on
regular and systematic plans, have already succeeded in converting Roads almost
impassible with common safety, into a line of communication between the seat of
Government and Ireland." (BPP 1820 (301) II.303)5
16
The role of accounting in scientific road management
In discussions and debates the role of accounting as a way to improve financial
management of turnpikes was considered. The lack of accountability for road
management was of great import to the 1811 committee. Additional clauses for
amending the 'Laws regarding the Highways and Turnpikes' recommended in the
committee report reflects this. It was suggested that overseers, local officials, take an
oath in regard to road administration and:
"...every such overseer shall give bond for the payment of and accounting for all
monies which may come to his hand, with penalties for neglect of duty, of from
twenty pounds to forty shillings." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.868)
Further, district overseers and surveyors were to attend general sessions in March
where their financial management was to be assessed:
"...and for this purpose the district overseers and surveyors shall then produce their
accounts to the magistrates, stating therein what sums arising from statute duty,
assessments, or from composition or fines, are due or in hand for the repair of each
division, parish, township, or place; and the future assessment of every division,
parish, township or place, shall be regulated according to the stock of money on hand,
or …due or recoverable within one month." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.868)
The 1811 Report also recommended that there be one general annual meeting of the
trustees of each turnpike trust:
"...for the purpose of examining and settling the accounts of the treasurers, clerks,
surveyors and collectors...and for making contracts for letting tolls, and for the
repairing of the roads and doing all other acts, matters or things, and making all such
orders, and giving all such directions, as may be necessary for the execution of the
trusts, and the complete repair and preservation of such roads." (BPP 1810-11 (240)
III.855, p. 15)
The new clauses recommended also included a compulsory audit of the accounts, with
two of the trustees acting as auditors:
"And be it further enacted that at the first meeting under this Act, two trustees shall be
appointed in each trust by the majority then present, to examine the accounts and
vouchers of their respective trusts, preparatory to their being laid before the trustees at
the next annual meeting; and that all officers shall exhibit their accounts to the trustees
17
so named, whenever called upon, for examination; and that no account shall be passed
which shall not have been previously audited and signed by the trustees so appointed
as aforesaid." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.869)
The committee suggested that proposals for spending the money on repairs or on
whatever should also be stated and submitted with the accounts to those who audited
the accounts:
"Money to be distributed equally in repair of roads under the same trust. If special
reasons exist for unequal apportionment...to be stated in minutes...such minutes,
together with the accounts, shall be submitted to the examiners of the accounts, and be
open to public inspection, as well as on the day of settling the accounts, as on any
other day, on twenty-four hours notice being given to produce them to the officer
keeping the same, by any person contributing in any manner towards the maintenance
of the said road." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.869)
This concern to constrain future spending, even to a limited extent by making things
open to a public realm, is a dimension of a general concern to improve management
through visibility: the committee wanted more visibility and thus suggested:
"And be it further enacted, that the trustees of any turnpike road shall annually, in the
month of June or July, print or publish an account of the receipts and expenditure of
the trust, to be delivered gratis to the several trustees, and to the creditors, on such
trust requiring the same, and that an abstract thereof shall be annually printed in the
principal county newspapers where such trust is situate[d]; and if such account is not
printed or published in conformity to the provison of this Act, the treasurer of such
trust shall forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred pounds, to be recovered by any
trustee or creditor in any of the superior courts at Westminster; and any treasurer
against whom such action shall be brought, and who shall be convicted in
consequence thereof, shall be incapable of holding such office, and a new treasurer
shall be chosen in his room." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.878)
The further investigations of the committee found that accounts had not been kept
properly by trusts in practice, which helped re-inforce the recommendations given
worries about managerial deficiencies and the developing cultural preference for an
accounting seen as factual if contentious (Haslam, 1991; Gallhofer and Haslam,
1994a,b; Poovey, 1998). The 1821 committee re-affirmed that a lack of proper
accounting contributed much to road management problems. It stressed in its report
that audits should be a significant part of any attempt to resolve these problems,
including a strong linkage between the practice of audit and the notion of scientific
road management:
18
"There is nothing which can be done relative to the construction or modes of drawing,
which can avail much towards the main object of the improvement of Roads; it is by
the judicious scientific and economical application of the Trust Funds that this object
can alone be affected. With a view of the latter, your Committee have endeavoured to
provide a regular mode of annually auditing the Accounts, which in some Trusts they
find have been greatly neglected. Other objects it is more difficult to remedy by
legislative provision; such as the careless and negligent application of the Trust Funds,
through the hand of parish or other ignorant surveyors, who are apt to employ the
most inefficient workmen, and thus render the money raised for the Roads, a sort of
auxiliary for the Poor Rates." (BPP 1821 (747) IV.349)
This pointed to an extension of the 1773 Consolidation Act for regulating turnpikes.
That Act had required that "Books, Accounts, Papers, or writings" had to be kept by
gatekeepers and surveyors and that the latter had to give a "true and exact Account, in
writing, to the said Trustees...of all Monies received by them...at such Tollgate or Bar,
or otherwise, on account of such Turnpike Road, not before accounted for under the
Penalty of five Pounds for every such Offence or Neglect." (13 Geo III c. 84). The
1822 Consolidating Act (3 Geo IV c.126) extended this as it contained detailed
accounting and auditing prescriptions indicative of the importance being attributed to
accounting. The latter Act stated that accounts had to be kept and be open to
inspection by trustees or commissioners. It required the trustees or commissioners to
hold a general meeting every year, audit the accounts and report the state of the roads
under their care and superintendence. Books of account that were 'true and regular'
were to be kept and be open to the inspection of trustees and creditors and to be
produced at all meetings of the latter. Visibility to ensure economic 'efficiency' was
perceived as attainable through accounts:
"And be it further enacted, that the Trustees or Commissioners of every Turnpike
Road shall and they are hereby required, at their General Annual Meeting each Year,
to examine, audit, and settle the Accounts of the respective Treasurers, Clerks and
Surveyors appointed by them, and to require such Treasurers, Clerks and Surveyors to
produce their Books, Accounts, Papers, and Vouchers, and to examine into the
Revenues and Debts, of the several Books for which they shall act as Treasurers,
Clerks and Surveyors, shall be settled and allowed by the Trustees or Commissioners
present at such Meeting, the same shall be signed by the chairman of such meeting,
and if any Treasurer, Clerk or Surveyor shall refuse or neglect to produce his
Accounts, or any Book, Paper or Voucher required to be produced by him, such
Treasurer, Clerk or Surveyor shall be dealt with according to the Provisions herein
before contained with regard to Officers refusing to account or deliver up Books or
Papers, or pay over Money in their Hands; and when and as soon as the said Accounts
of the said respective Treasurers, Clerks and Surveyors shall be audited, allowed and
signed, the Clerk to the Trustees or Commissioners holding such Meeting shall
forthwith make out a Statement of the Debts, Revenues and Expenditure received or
19
incurred on account of the Trust for which the Meeting shall be held, in the Form
contained in the Schedule to this Act annexed, which said statement shall be submitted
to the Trustees and Commissioners assembled at such Meeting, and when approved by
the Majority of them shall be signed by the Chairman of the said Meeting; and the said
Statement being so approved and signed, the said Clerk shall, within Thirty Days
thereafter, transmit the same to the Clerk of the Peace of the County in which the
Road, or the major Part thereof, to which the said Statement relates, shall lie; and if
any Clerk shall refuse or neglect to make out Statements as aforesaid, or to transmit
the same within the Time herein - before mentioned, every Clerk so offending shall
for such Offence forfeit and pay the sum of Fifty Pounds, to be recorded as herein after directed." (3 Geo IV c. 126 LXXVII)
The trustees and commissioners were empowered to order officers to render a 'true,
exact and perfect account', failing which such officers could be fined by the Justices
(LXXVIII). Further, the Act specified that accounts of treasurers, clerks and surveyors
were to be audited at every general meeting (a form of internal audit), books, papers
and vouchers were to be produced if required and statements of debt and revenues and
expenditures received or incurred on account of the trust were to be signed by the
'chairman' and transmitted to the local clerk of the peace. Accounts were also to be
sent to the Justice of the Peace of each county where they were registered and kept
amongst the records of the county’s Quarter Sessions. To increase at least the
possibility of visibility, a clause stipulated that accounts:
"...be open to the Inspection of all and every Person or Persons whatsoever, who may
take extracts therefrom or copies thereof, paying to the Clerk of the Peace in whose
Custody the same shall be, the sum of five shillings for each Inspection, and the sum
of sixpence for every seventy-two words of each Extract or Copy taken." (3 Geo IV, c.
126 LXXIV)
Signed copies were to be printed and sent to every commissioner or trustee (LXXX).
An amending Act of 1828 (9 Geo. IV, c. 77) stressed that account books should be
admitted as evidence in all courts and accepted by all judges and that these books
were to be open to commissioners, trustees and creditors free of charge.
Accounts were also understood as an important means of control for the centre. This
is reflected in the suggestion discussed by the 1811 committee that accounts should be
sent to London where they would then be checked (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.892, 894).
20
John Loudon McAdam, in his evidence to the committee, had also suggested that
Parliament should be informed about the financial situation of the turnpike trusts:
"I should think that the state of the finances ought to be reported in some way every
year, that they might reach parliament, either by counties, or by some means the least
expensive and the least troublesome; and I think such a report of the finance, annually,
would be a great means of preventing misapplication of the public funds; and it would
create a comparison between one part of the country and another, that would be useful
in checking misconduct." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.881)
Again, the linking of an accounting visibility to improved economic management,
very much a 'Benthamite' notion (Gallhofer and Haslam, 1994b), is evident.
TENSIONS
If the deliberations over turnpike management were pointing towards a more
centralised and uniform system in which enhanced visibility was a key component,
such a stance could not escape the tensions reflective of the social context. Such
tensions were here manifest in the form of controversies over the proposals for
improving turnpike management. Despite the support for unification of trusts and the
introduction of a uniform scientific road management system it is of significance that
the committee was concerned to consider the impact that such measures would have
on local powers. The issue of central versus local control and in this context the
tensions associated with central intervention in local affairs was a key issue discussed
by the various committees. Serious objections were raised to the suggestion discussed
by the 1811 committee of sending the accounts of turnpike trusts to London for
examination. Mr Lowndes, in giving evidence to the committee, noted that this
sending of accounting reports to the centre would add to an increase in trust expenses
and thus help undermine the already difficult financial situation of many trusts:
"The additional expense in consequence of sending the accounts annually, might be
avoided. They would be full as well understood in the neighbourhood of each turnpike
road; the expense of materials; of team work; &c. being different in different places.
One person to be chosen for justices at the quarter sessions, and another by the
majority in value of the mortgages, might examine the accounts in the country better
21
than any gentleman could do in London. In this manner at least the accounts of
turnpikes that are in arrears might be examined...they might have power to discharge
the clerk, treasurer, surveyor, gate keeper..." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.892)
To enhance his position, he presented a copy of a letter sent to him that addressed the
same issue:
"Accounts.- The proposed method of inspecting the turnpike accounts in London
would be attended with a great expense, when the poverty of most of the cross country
turnpike funds is considered. Out of six of them that meet at or within a mile of one of
the two market towns nearest my residence, four of them are considerably in arrear of
interest. The accounts and the management of the trustees might be full as well
discovered or known if they were examined near the turnpike road which they relate
to, as the price of labour may be much better known near the place where it had been
applied, than in London...the justices at the quarter sessions might be able to find out a
proper person for this purpose, and the riding surveyor might attend him with the
accounts of his association, and explain the same, and the said accounts might be
examined at the same town where the treasurer resides, and he also might be examined
there...the major part of mortgagees might appoint an agent or he who would be next
entitled to relief might examine the accounts of the treasurer once a year. At that time
such agent or mortgagee might also have the privilege of attending and stating any
objection he may have. This would be done at a little expense, and probably save the
expense of a journey to London. The accounts would thus be twice examined, and
therefore will most likely prevent any carelessness or dishonesty of any person
concerned. By this means members of Parliament might avoid a great deal of trouble
and solicitation." (BPP 1810-11 (240) III.894)
The concern to avoid central control, whatever its motivation, was strong. A
considerable extension of local control was in any case suggested as an alternative.
Lowndes indicated that accounts had a role in seeking to ensure a quite public (if
local) monitoring of expenses, including labour costs. He also suggested that those
lending money to the trust should be involved in examining the accounts. He referred
to a power to discharge those responsible for rendering accounts. Lowndes placed
emphasis on opposing the efficacy of a universal accounting to the centre and pointed
to the costliness of accounting prescription in elaborating his case.
The proposal to enhance control from the centre was motivated in contrast by a
doubting of the value of local contingencies. It was also consistent with the view that
central control was to be preferred over the developing market system or rather with
the recognition that the market system required enhanced central regulation from the
State's perspective (see Polanyi, 1945). This had implications for the development of
22
the audit profession. If accounts were to be sent to the centre for more than filing and
public inspection purposes, such as where accounts were to be centrally examined, an
auditing profession could have come to be more concentrated at the centre and be
employed there for this. Today, given what was envisaged, the market is trusted more
than appears then to have been the case. The suggestions of the 1811 committee were
seen in part as too radical and seem to have been given little substantive attention (a
similar fate met an 1808 parliamentary committee's recommendation that annual
reports of turnpikes be sent to central government, see Webb and Webb, 1963, pp.
187-9). The 1819 committee reported:
"...bills introduced...[have]...been last in their progress through Parliament, and the
suggestions for more general improvements having allowed to remain without further
notice." (BPP 1819 (509) V.341)
And it is very forthright about the reason for this:
"...some of the systems most confidently recommended were of a novel and
speculative nature; that the regulations which it proposed to found on them too
strongly affected the interests of vested property; and that even the most valuable
information communicated to the House rested upon ingenious theories, which had
then been very partially, if at all, reduced to practice, or submitted to fair experiment."
(BPP 1819 (509) V.341)
The issues here were articulated in terms of central versus local control. The 1819
committee thus was concerned to discuss in great detail possibilities of central control.
If witnesses came out strongly for the consolidation of trusts, they articulated serious
concerns about intervention from the centre to bring this about. John Loudon
McAdam seems to have had such concerns in mind when answering a question from
the committee as to whether he would alter the trusts:
"That would be a great advantage, if the trusts could be consolidated; but there are
objections to it and very serious objections." (BPP 1819 (509) V.364)
McAdam went on to confirm the committee's view that there would be local
objections (pp. 26-7). The following conversation between McAdam and the 1819
committee highlights the issue:
23
"Do you propose any general inspection to be established over the whole system of
road-making? - I should think it a public advantage if there was some inspection or
controlling power in some quarter or other, to prevent the general surveyors from
being improperly appointed; but whether that controlling power should emanate from
the Government or the authorities in the county, I am not a judge." (BPP 1819 (509)
V.366)
The 1819 committee report stresses a concern to establish a system of road
management with the 'least injurious or offensive interference with existing customs
and authorities' (BPP 1819 (509) V.343). The committee report pointed to different
suggestions made regarding changes in turnpike trust administration implying greater
centralisation:
"Various are the plans which have been brought under their consideration for altering
the general constitution of the Laws affecting the management of Turnpike Roads,
proposing either to annex the superintendence and patronage to some of the existing
Departments of Government or to constitute a new Board of Commissioners expressly
for this object." (BPP 1819 (509) V.343)
Yet it did not recommend an increase in central control:
"...the direction of the affairs of the different trunpike trusts...[should be left]...in the
hands of their respective commissioners, whose experience, character and interest,
afford the best pledges of ability, attention and economy." (BPP 1819 (509) V.343)
An empowerment of the local was instead preferred:
"...the magistrates of every county, assembled in quarter sessions, to appoint one or
more surveyors general, who shall have the superintendence and management of the
turnpike roads within the county, under the authority and direction of the
commissioners of the different trusts." (BPP 1819 (509) V.343)
Of course concern to render uniform via local involvement remained. Objections to
the central were met by enhanced intervention through the local. The committee
pointed out that as yet they did not want to set out 'detailed regulations by which the
executive duties of...an officer should be prescribed' (BPP 1819 (509) V.344).
"But having made this observations, your committee deem it necessary to declare, that
in alluding to general system, uniform plans, &c&c they have not any reference
whatever to a general management by the executive government, or otherwise;
nothing in their opinion, would be so utterly destructive of the objects they have in
view. General information and scientific plans, modified by accidental circumstances,
combined with local management, more or less extensive, as particular cases may
require, will, in the opinion of your committee, form the most perfect system of roadmaking that has yet appeared in any part of the world." (BPP 1819 (509) V.344)
24
This quotation is important as it is suggestive of an executive control by other means
- namely by 'information and scientific plans' (Webb and Webb, 1963, p 189, refer to
central control without central management), modified by something akin to a 'local
consideration principle' - elaborated in the writings of Jeremy Bentham (Gallhofer and
Haslam, 1993, 1994b). In the 1821 committee report we find similar concerns
expressed about local objections and resistance:
"On the expediency (indeed of the ultimate necessity) of providing some legislative
remedy for the more efficient and more economical application of the immense
revenue which is collected from the public, on the Roads immediately round London,
Your Committee still entertain no doubt whatever; a multiplicity of trusts, encumbered
with numerous trustees, competitors against each other in the market for road
materials, and without any combined or scientific system of management, cannot, in
the opinion of your committee, effect in the most desirable manner the object for
which the present heavy tolls are raised upon the public. Your committee were
nevertheless aware, that any measure would meet with strong resistance, which
proposed in a greater or less degree to change the distribution of the large revenue
now applied to maintain the Roads in question; and were not surprised to find, that all
the persons concerned in the present expenditure, were strongly indisposed to the
change." (BPP 1821 (747) IV.345)
The 1820 committee, which also focused upon the consolidation of the turnpike trusts
around London, pointed to possible resistance against unification. In most cases,
according to their report, this resistance would be due to 'total misapprehension' of the
measures proposed, or to the caution that they would arouse from mistaken feelings of
a personal nature, and 'in a few cases', the opposition would be motivated perhaps 'by
inferior agents on motives of interest' (BPP 1820 (301) II. 304). When the issue of
appointing a select committee to inquire into the management of turnpike trusts in the
county of Middlesex was discussed in Parliament, concerns about central intervention
were raised. Sir E. Knatchbull admitted that:
"...if the object [of the investigation] was to throw the turnpike trusts into the hands of
government, or to place all the roads under the superintendence of Mr Mc Adam, he
should decidedly resist such a course; convinced that it would only lead to
corruption...which he always had opposed." (Parliamentary Debates, N.S. XII, 1825,
p. 550).
Some more explicitly advocated placing the turnpikes under government control,
including central management (Webb and Webb, 1963, pp. 187-9).
25
It is likely that one reason for resisting central disclosure was that it promoted a
visibility in keeping with the democratic aspirations attached to the modern State. The
latter was assuming an increased significance in the early nineteenth century that
threatened local customs and practices. One dimension of the resistance to disclosure
is the concern to 'manage the poor' that would, in effect, have included a concern to be
less than open and visible to or on behalf of this sector of society (see, Haslam, 1991).
TURNPIKE
REGULATION
AS
PART
OF
WIDER
REGULATORY
CONCERNS OF THE 1820Ss: FURTHER ANALYSIS
If much of the legislation regulating turnpike trusts had in effect recommended that
they keep and use accounts (see Pawson, 1977, p. 177), in the early nineteenth
century, especially by the 1820s, the State was taking a more pro-active and
prescriptive stance. This development parallels that found in other significant areas
such as in State moves to regulate friendly societies, the savings banks, banking
generally, bankruptcy procedures and Poor Law operations (Haslam, 1991). The 1821
report on turnpike administration (BPP 1821 (747) IV. 343), as with moves in the
above areas, is largely consistent with a Benthamite reasoning (Gallhofer and Haslam,
1994a,b). It sought that accounting systems provide some protection against fraud in
the narrower sense and further that they provide a mechanism for making visible the
financial management of the trust so that the soundness and efficiency thereof might
be evaluated and controlled. Visibility was clearly understood as effecting control
over behaviour whether in terms of expenditure, borrowing or toll-setting. This is
understood to be beneficial to others (eg. tradesmen and the Post Office) and to the
State and nation. The concern was to make the trusts’ financial behaviour, how the
trusts raised and used money, more uniform, judicious, scientific and efficient. The
linkage of this to a mode of regular accounting and of an annual auditing of accounts
(BPP 1821 (747) IV. 345, 349) is strong. The danger of this is that accounting comes
to stand in place of and even distort managerial behaviour. It should be stressed here
26
that the committee sought especially to explore not only whether or not accounts were
kept and used but also how well they were used and to what effect. If their exploration
pointed to a negative response to both lines of enquiry, their reaction was to re-inforce
accounting prescription. The committee's promotion, through its deliberations and
including its report, of a scientific accounting, amounted to a concern to affect an
enhanced central control over the trusts but through the medium of the accounting
mechanism rather than a more obviously controversial move to central 'ownership'.
That accounts here were linked to scientific management would have contributed to
enhancing their socio-economic significance. Concurrently, the accounts promoted
are constrained to a narrow economistic focus (even if aspects of the debate over and
discussion of accounts in this context helps to pose questions to the taken-for-granted
functionings of accounting today). Further, they are not in this realm clearly seen (in
contrast with the surveyors, envisaged as professional engineers) as a matter of
expertise: in particular it was deemed reasonable to choose auditors from amongst the
trustees.
If these developments indicate the State's mobilising of a scientific and political
economy reasoning, close analysis also suggests they reflect the social struggles and
tensions of the context. Concerns over centralism, reflecting in part growing
recognition that a 'market' economy necessitated various regulations (Polanyi, 1945),
are also influenced by fear that too much information would be disclosed threatening
'local interests', or, more generally, the perceived interests of both the old and the new
wealthy and powerful. Built into the system of accounting disclosure is a (mutable)
political preference that in the context includes concern to 'manage the poor' including
displacing their active involvement in democratic change. The dialectic of accounting
here is similar to that of education, and accounting and notions of educating the
masses were culturally close in the early to mid-nineteenth century (Haslam, 1991;
Gallhofer and Haslam, 1993, 2003). Further, it is not surprising, given issues
involved, including regarding disclosure of surpluses out of semi-public activities,
27
that inspection of reports available for inspection cost so much or that the precise
details of the form and content of prescribed accounts is not set out. This is consistent
with legislation in other areas in which, especially in the 1830s, fear of too much
disclosure is influential, encouraging limited, aggregated forms thereof (Haslam,
1991).
Analysis of accounting's increased significance at the level of the early nineteenth
century British State vis-à-vis regulating the turnpike trusts helps to clarify and
confirm insights into aspects of accounting's mobilizing in other focuses of concern to
that State (see Haslam, 1991). Regulation had proceeded previously for some time in
these areas - especially in the area of road administration - without the kind of
substantive attempts that were made in the early nineteenth century to enhance
uniformity in management and the promotion of an accounting, ostensibly with a
wide-ranging role, in this context. Analysis points to the contingency of this
substantive promotion of accounting in these areas. At the level of the State, a
scientific materialist discourse (of which Bentham’s work is a prominent exemplar),
which understands accounts as factual and as reliable for purposes of control, was
significantly influential. It was also perceived that there was a threat to the sociopolitical order in a changing context and partly in response to this a political economy
discourse, of which accounting was also part, was mobilized. Accounts were
promoted as part of an experiment of a bourgeois scientific political economy
concerned to render behaviour more predictable and productive. A crucial element of
the developing State policy, as Polanyi (1945) appreciated, was a concern to manage
the poor – including to keep the masses 'in order' efficiently. If the concern was in
effect to manage more directly from the centre, the mobilization of accounts, given
their aura of facticity and the scientific, was a much more subtle and feasible
intervention than one that would have been perceived as threatening to the old
aristocratic order in particular, i.e. a more obviously crude enhancement of centralist
management. The moral and political is transformed into the factual. In effect
28
accounting was to stand in place of a nascent more democratic control. An
understanding of accounting as an objective and impersonal technology bestowed
upon it in State deliberations a universal dignity of reason to which the
enlightenment's ostensible virtues might be relinquished. Albeit with good reason,
accounting is being mobilized because of a breaking down in trust or recognition that
fraudulent or wasteful behaviour could no longer be tolerated. Accounting was in
effect here integral to a standardisation or normalisation overriding local and specific
cultures. This at least in part reflects a confounding of calculatory with rational
thought. The social tensions of the context affected the content and form of
accounting prescription (if this is not to suggest that a relatively influential elite's
perceived interests were absolutely victorious in the struggle). Concerns that
disclosure be restricted or not sent directly to the central State (e.g. it being better to
send reports to the local bodies or via those) are found in many State deliberations in
the context (Haslam, 1991).
Several notions of the debate and discussion within which accounting was a key focus
may be considered of note for their potential in posing questions for accounting today.
The view that the centre should conduct analyses of accounting information is one
that has not been taken up as extensively as envisaged. Outside of certain practices of
bodies such as the monopoly commission, the 'market' (including the usage of
accounting by the market) is today relied on more than it was. The suggestion that
those controlling through accounting should have 'local knowledge' is a dimension of
what Bentham termed the local-consideration principle (Gallhofer and Haslam,
1994b). That this issue arose vis-à-vis turnpike regulation points to its location in both
policy discussions generally and those concerning accounting particularly (indeed it is
found in other areas of State concern in the 1820s, see Haslam, 1991). A concern to
make future plans and expenditure accountable in a particular realm is one aspect of
the 1811 report differing from most contemporary manifestations of accounting
processes. The view that those lending money to the trust should also be 'examining'
29
the accounts and have access to them may also be considered to have dimensions
constituting a challenge to current practices. Of particular note here is the sense in
which the case illustrates how accounting can expose problematic financial
behaviours and distributions and is not necessarily possessed or controlled absolutely
by the relatively powerful forces of a context.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
We analyzed debates over turnpike administration in relation to intertwined
contextual forces of relevance to this analysis in early nineteenth century Britain. A
key focus was upon perceptions and promotions of accounting and related forms of
governance in this context. In concluding here, we may stress that it is indeed
surprising that this area has been little researched given the significance of the
turnpikes and road administration and the context and the interesting insights it
suggests. Such is the significance of biases in prior research.
We elaborated different criticisms made of road administration and discussed
proposals made for change. We highlighted controversies of the time focused upon
central intervention. What was at stake was significant in a possible re-orientation of
how things were organized centrally: e.g., in respect of the management of the poor
and whether or not the roads would be taken over by the central government. We
brought out how accounting was integral to the concern to improve road management
and mobilized a critical analysis of accounting's positioning. Accounting, if seen as a
straightforward factual practice (and not seen as a particular expertise yet in the way
that the surveyor role was), was seen as bound up with a scientific management that
would help counter fraud and abuse of situational possibilities but enhance or ensure
economic efficiency and counter the tendency for trust debts to continuously
accumulate. Trust management was to be scientific as well as honourable, and the
latter was to be ensured rather than left to be trusted. The State in effect promoted a
30
modern administrative system, giving weight to forms of accounting (deemed factual
if not without controversy) and auditing, which from the centre was acting on the
local, backed by suggestions of general inspection, to render greater uniformity, with
McAdam’s ways acting as a model. There are hints or suggestions here at a greater
accountability of institutional activities to the public. The power of visibility via
accounting is given some emphasis. We delineated issues occurring in relation to
State concern to intervene in and control what were held up as matters of local
consideration. We elaborated issues reflecting clashes between different groups with
direct or indirect interests in the turnpikes or road administration. The Turnpike
structure was rationalized partly by its impact on motivation but engendered a profitmaking emphasis that in the context threatened the ostensible public interest
motivation. We indicated fears over public exposure. And we highlighted concerns
about how to regulate expanding economic activity and the market place while
managing the poor.
Accounting and related practices are, embedded in these aspects of the contextual
dynamics, appreciated as ambiguous and dialectical in the contextual complex
processes focused upon. Some insights for a critical questioning of accounting and
related practices today are suggested.
31
REFERENCES
Parliamentary Papers (Acts and Reports)
An Act to amend the general laws now in being for regulating Turnpike Roads in that part of
the Great Britain called England. (3 Geo IV c. 126).
Report from the Committee on the Highways and Turnpike Roads in England and Wales.
House of Commons Papers, Reports of Committees 1810-11 (240) III. 855.
Report from the Select Committee on the Highways of the Kingdom; together with the
Evidence taken before them. House of Commons Papers, Reports of Committees 1819 (509)
V. 339.
Report from the Select Committee on the Turnpike Roads and Highways in England and
Wales. House of Commons Papers, Reports of Committees 1820 (301) II. 301.
Report from the Select Committee appointed to consider the Acts now in force regarding
Turnpike Roads and Highways in England and Wales. House of Commons Papers, Reports of
Committees 1821 (747) IV. 343.
Secondary Literature
Albert, W. (1968), The Road Transport System in England, 1700-1839, Unpublished Ph.D.
Thesis, University of London.
Albert, W. (1972), The Turnpike Road System in England, 1663-1840, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Albert, W. (1979), Popular Opposition to Turnpike Trusts in Early Eighteenth Century
England, The Journal of Transport History, New Series, vol. 5, no. 1, Feb. 1979, pp. 1-17.
Albert, W. (1983), The Turnpike Trusts in England, in, D.H. Aldcroft and M.J. Freeman,
Transport in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 31-63.
Albert, W. (1984), Popular Opposition to Turnpike Trusts and its significance, in, The Journal
of Transport History, 3rd series, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 66-7.
Albert, W. and P.D.A. Harvey (1973), eds., Portsmouth and Sheet Turnpike Commissioners'
Minute Book, Portsmouth Record Series, City of Portsmouth.
Aldcroft, D.H. (1974), Studies in British Transport History, London.
Aldcroft, D.H. and Freeman, M.J. (1983), eds., Transport in the Industrial Revolution,
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Anderson, R.M.C. (1932), The Roads of England, London: Benn.
Bagwell, P.S. (1974), The Transport Revolution from 1770, London: Batsford.
Barker, T.C. (1974), An Economic History of Transport in Britain, 3rd ed., London:
Hutchinson.
Barker, T.C. and D. Gerhold (1995), The Rise and Rise of Road Transport, 1700-1990,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
32
Baugh, D.A. (1975), ed., Aristocratic Government and Society in Eighteenth Century
England: the Foundations of Stability, New York: New Viewpoints.
Bayes, J.F. (1970), Gloucester and Hereford Turnpike Trust, in, Gloucestershire Historical
Studies, 4, pp. 21-3.
Bellamy, C. (1988), Administering Central-Local Relations, 1871-1919: the Local
Government Board in its Fiscal and Cultural Context, Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
Black, S.B. (1984), Faringham Crossroads: a Study of Two Kentish Turnpike Roads: the
Wrotham & Maidstone road and the Dartford & Sevenoaks road, Sevenoaks: Darenth Valley.
Bogart, D. (2005a), Turnpike Trusts: the Transportation Revolution in Eighteenth Century
England, Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 479-508.
Bogart, D. (2005b), Did Turnpike Trusts Increase Transportation Investment in EighteenthCentury England?, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 65, No. 2, pp. 439-68.
Bogart, D. (2009), Turnpike Trusts and Property Income: New Evidence on the Effects of
Transport Improvements and Legislation in Eighteenth-Century England, Economic History
Review, 62, pp. 128-52.
Bond, M. (1959), Materials for Transport History amongst the Records of Parliament, The
Journal of Transport History, vol. IV, no. 1, May, pp. 37-52.
Brighouse, W.H. (1970), Some Notes on Tollbars and Turnpike Roads, Derbyshire
Miscellany, 5, pt. 4, pp. 204-6.
Brown, D. (1978), A Sociology of Industrialisation: an Introduction, London: Macmillan.
Brown, R. (1905), A History of Accounting and Accountants, Edinburgh: Jack.
Bryer, R. (1991), Accounting for the “Railway Mania” of 1845 – a Great Railway Swindle,
Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 16, Nos. 5/6, pp. 439-86.
Carley, J. (1985), The Turnpike Roads of Kent, Maidstone: Kent County Library.
Chaloner, W.H. and B.M. Ratcliffe (1977), Trade and Transport: Essays in Economic
History. In Honour of T.S. Willan, Manchester: Manchester Univrsity Press.
Chaplin, R.R. (1969), Notes on the Chepstow and District Turnpike Trust, Gloucestershire
Historical Studies, 3, pp. 47-57.
Chartres, J.A. (1933), Road Carrying in England in the Seventeenth century: Myth and
Reality, Economic History Review, 30, pp. 73-94.
Chibnall, T. (1963), The Roads of Buckinghamshire, with Special Reference to Turnpike
Roads, Unpublished MSc Thesis, London.
Clarke, C.A.A. (1955), The Turnpike Trusts of Islington and Marylebone from 1700 to 1825,
Unpublished MA Thesis, London.
Cobbett, W. (1824), The Law of Turnpikes; or, an Analytical arrangement of, and illustrative
commentaries on, all the general acts relative to the turnpike roads of England, London:
Charles Clement.
33
Coleby, A.M. (1987), Central Government and the Localities, 1649-1689, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Copeland, J. (1963), An Essex Turnpike gate, The Journal of Transport History, vol. VI, no.
2, Nov., pp. 87-94.
Cossons, A. (1934), The Turnpike Roads of Nottinghamshire, London.
Cox, C. (1987), The Development and Decline of the Turnpike System in the Stroudwater
Area of Gloucestershire, 1725-1875, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, LSE.
Cox, C. and Surry, N. (1965), The Archeology of Turnpike Roads, Journal of Industrial
Archeology, 2, pp. 33-40.
Cross, C., D. Loades and J.J. Scarisbrick (1988), Law and Government under the Tudors:
Essays presented to Sir G. Elton, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dodds, W.G. (1966), The Turnpike Trusts of Northumberland, Unpublished MA Thesis,
Durham.
Duckham, Baron F. (1968), Turnpike Records, History, 53, pp. 217-20.
Dyos, H.J. and Aldcroft, D.M. (1969), British Transport: an Economic Survey from the
Seventeenth Century to the Twentieth, Leicester: Leicester University Press.
Ellistow-Erwood, F.C. (1957), The Biddenden and Boundgate Turnpike Road, 1766-1883,
Archaelogia Cantiana, LXXI, pp. 185-97.
Elton, G. R. (1969a), England, 1200-1640, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Elton, G.R. (1969b), The Practice of History, London: Fontana.
Elton, G.R. (1991), England under the Tudors, 3rd ed., London: Routledge.
Evans, A.D. (1946), Transport: its History and Economics, London: Pitman.
Filios, V.P. (1983), The Cameralistic method of Accounting: a Historical Note, Journal of
Business Finance and Accounting, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 443-450.
Fortescue, Sir J. (1938), Early History of Transport and Supply, London: Cassell.
Forrester, D.A.R. (1980), Early Canal company accounts: Financial and Accounting Aspects
of the Forth and Clyde Navigation, 1768-1816, Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 10,
No. 37A, pp. 109-23.
Foulkes, R. (1982), Downing's Turnpike Road, Aspects of Downing History, Downing
College Association.
Fraser, D.E. (1960), The Development of the Road System in Glamorgan up to 1844, with
Special Reference to Turnpike Roads, Unpublished MA Thesis, Wales, 1960.
Freeman, M.J. (1979), Turnpikes and their Traffic: the Example of Southern Hampshire,
Institute of British Geographers Transactions, 4.
Freeman, M.J. (1980), Road Transport in the English Industrial Revolution: an Interim
Reassessment, Journal of Historical Geography, 6, pp. 17-28.
34
Gallhofer, S. and J. Haslam (1991), The Aura of Accounting in the Context of a Crisis:
Germany and the First World War, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol.16, Nos.5/6,
pp. 487-520.
Gallhofer, S. and J. Haslam (1993), Approaching Corporate Accountability: Fragments from
the Past, Accounting and Business Research, vol. 23, no. 21a, pp. 320-330.
Gallhofer, S. and J. Haslam (1994a), Accounting and the Benthams: Accounting as Negation,
Accounting, Business and Financial History, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 239-73.
Gallhofer, S. and J. Haslam (1994b), Accounting and the Benthams - or, Accounting's
Potentialities, Accounting, Business and Financial History, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 431-60.
Gallhofer, S. and J. Haslam (1995), Accounting and Modernity, Advances in Public Interest
Accounting, Vol. 6, pp. 203-52.
Gallhofer, S. and J. Haslam (2003), Accounting and Emancipation: Some Critical
Interventions, London and New York: Routledge.
Georgano, G.N. (1972), ed., A History of Transport, London: J.M. Dent and Sons.
Ginarlis, J. (1971), Roads and Canals, in, Higgins, J.P.P. and Pollard, S., eds., Aspects of
Capital Investment in Great Britain: 1750-1850, London: Methuen, pp. 121-30.
Ginarlis, J. and S. Pollard (1988), Roads and Waterways: 1750-1850, in, Feinstein, C. and
Pollard, S., eds., Studies in Capital Formation in the United Kingdom, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 182-224.
Handlist of Records: Turnpike Roads, Canals, Ferries (1983), Truro: Cornwall County and
Diocesan Record Office (Handlist, no. 5).
Hartley, M., Ingelby, J., Hall, D.S. and L.P. Wenham (1985), eds., Alexander Fothergill and
the Richmond to Lancaster Turnpike Road: the Diary and other Documents transcribed,
indexed and introduced, North Yorkshire County Record Office Publication, no. 37,
Northallerton: North Yorkshire County Council.
Hartmann, C.H. (1972), The Story of the Roads, London: Routledge.
Haslam, J. (1991), On the Prescribing of Accounting and Accounting Publicity in early to
mid-nineteenth century Britain: Accounting History as Critique, Unpublished PhD Thesis,
University of Essex.
Hellmuth, E. (1990), The Transformation of Political Culture: England and Germany in the
Late Eighteenth Century, German Historical Institute, London: Oxford University Press.
Hindle, B.P. (1976), The Road Network of Medieval England and Wales, Journal of
Historical Geography, 2, pp. 207-21.
Hunt, W. (1905), The History of England: from the Accession of George III. to the Close of
Pitt's first Administration, 1760-1801, London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Hughes, M. (1963), The Holyhead Road, 1800-33: a Study in Highway Administration,
Unpublished MSc Thesis, London.
Jackman, W.T. (1916), The Development of Transportation in Modern England, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press..
35
Johnson, R. (1969), The Nottingham-Newhaven Turnpike Road, Derbyshire Miscellany, 5,
pp. 5-15.
Jones, G.W. (1980), New Approaches to the Study of Central-Local Government
relationships, SSRC, London: Gower.
Kirkaldy, A.W. and A.D. Evans (1924), The History and Economics of Transport, London:
Pitman.
Lawsberry, H.C.F. (1965), James MacAdam and the St. Albans Turnpike Trust, The Journal
of Transport History, vol. VII, no.2, Nov., pp. 120-27.
Lewis, A.H.J. (1967), The Early Effects of Carmarthenshire's Turnpike Trusts, 1760-1800,
Carmarthenshire Historian, 4, pp. 41-54.
Lloyd, L.C. (1960), Eighteenth Century Highway Administration in an Area of South
Shropshire, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, LVI (1957-60), pp. 31427.
Lloyd, T.O. (1984), The British Empire: 1558-1983, N.Y.: Oxford University Press (The
Short Oxford History of the Modern World).
MacAdam, J.L. (1816), Remarks on the Present System of Road Making; with Observations
deducted from Practice and Experience; with a View to a Revision of the existing Laws, and
the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing and Preserving Road,
and defending the Road Funds from Misapplication, Bristol.
Macleod, R.M. (1988), ed., Government and Expertise: Specialists, Administrators and
Professionals, 1860-1919, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marcy, P.T. (1968), Bristol's Roads and Communications on the Eve of the Industrial
Revolution, 1740-1780, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological
Society, 87, pp. 149-72.
Margetson, S. (1978), Pay up or turn back: the Age of Turnpikes in London, Countrylife, 164,
pp. 1665-6.
Masefield, P. (1955), British Transport in the National Economy, Journal of the Institute of
Transport, Nov.
Minnis, S.E. (1965), The Highways of Bourn and their Surveyors in the Early Nineteenth
Century, Part 1, Cambridgeshire Local History Council Bulletin, 21.
Minnis, S.E. (1968), The Highways of Bourn and their Surveyors in the Early Nineteenth
Century, Part 2, Cambridgeshire Local History Council Bulletin, 23, pp. 3-10.
Murray, D. (1930), Chapters in the History of Bookkeeping, Accountancy and Commercial
Arithmetic, Glasgow: Jackson, Wylie and Company.
Owens, R.J. (1972), The Newent Turnpike Road, Gloucestershire Historical Studies, 5, pp.
19-23.
Parker, R.H. (1988), Select Bibliography of Works on the History of Accounting, 1981-1987,
The Accounting Historians Journal, vol. 15, no. 2, Fall 1988, pp. 1-81.
Pawson, E. (1977), Transport and Economy: the Turnpike Roads of Eighteenth Century
Britain, London: Academic Press.
36
Pawson, E. (1984), Popular Opposition to Turnpike Trusts?, The Journal for Transport
History, 3rd series, vol. 5, no. 2, Sept., pp. 57-65.
Phillips, A.D.M. and B.J. Turton (1987), Staffordshire Turnpike Trusts and Traffic in the
Early Nineteenth Century, The Journal for Transport History, 3rd series, vol. 8, no. 2, Sep.,
pp. 126-146.
Pollins, H.C. (1956), Aspects of Railway Accounting before 1868, in, Edwards, J.R., ed.,
Reporting Fixed Assets in Nineteenth Century Company Accounts, New York: Garland.
Pollins, H. (1991), British Horse Tramway Company Accounting Practices: 1870-1940,
Accounting, Business and Financial History, vo. 1, no. 3, pp. 279-302.
Poovey, M. (1998), A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of
Wealth and Society, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pratt, E.A. (1912), A History of Inland Transport and Communication in England, London:
K. Paul, Trench, Trüber.
Pratt, E.A. (1972) A History of Inland Transport and Communication in England, Newton
Abbot: David & Charles.
Prevost, W.A.J. (1973), The Turnpike and Custom Port at Alisonbank, Transactions of the
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, N.S., 73, pp. 282-98.
Pritchard, R.T. (1958), Turnpike Trusts of Caernarvonshire, Transactions of the
Caernarvonshire Historical Society, XIX, pp. 61-9.
Pritchard, R.T. (1961a), Caernarvonshire Turnpike Trusts: Ysbyty and Penmachno Trust,
Caernarvonshire Historical Society transactions, XXII, pp. 76-80.
Pritchard, R.T. (1961b), Montgomeryshire Turnpike Trusts, The Montgomeryshire
Collections, LVII, pp. 2-16.
Pritchard, R.T. (1964), The Roads and Turnpike Trusts of Flintshire, Flintshire Historical
Society Publications, XXI, pp. 75-90.
Radley, J. (1963), Peak District Roads Prior to the Turnpike Era, Derbyshire Archaeological
Journal, XXXIII, pp. 39-50.
Radley, J. and S.R. Penny (1972), The Turnpike Roads of the Peak District, Derbyshire
Archaeological Journal, 92, pp. 93-109.
Reader, W.J. (1980), The MacAdam Family and the Turnpike Roads, 1798-1861, London:
Heinemann.
Redlich, J. (1970), The History of Local Government in England, 2nd ed., London:
Macmillan.
Review (1963), S.&B. Webb, The Story of the King's Highway, The Journal of Transport
History, vol. VI, no. 2, Nov., pp.118-9.
Ridley, A. (1969), An Illustrated History of Transport, London.
Roberts, B.J. and J.F. Bayse (1969), The Turnpike Roads from Gloucester to Cheltenham and
Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire Historical Studies, 3, pp. 58-68.
Rogers, H.C.B. (1961), Turnpike to Iron Road, London.
37
Savage, C.I. (1966), Economic History of Transport, London.
Scott, J. (1971-3), Turnpike Roads in Derbyshire, Derbyshire Miscellany, 6, pp.198-209.
Sheldon, G. (1928), From Trackway to Turnpike, London: Milford.
Spadafora, D. (1990), The Idea of Progress in Eighteenth Century Britain, New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Spaul, J.E.H. (1977), Turnpikes near Andover, 1775-1887, Andover: Andover Local Archives
Committee.
Spiro, R.H. (1950), John Loudon MacAdam - Colossus of Roads, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis,
Cambridge.
Spiro, R.H. (1956), John Loudon MacAdam and the Metropolic Turnpike Trust, The Journal
of Transport History, vol. II, no. 4, Nov, pp. 207-213.
Stacey, N. (1954), English Accountancy, 1800-1954: a Study in Social and Economic History,
London: Gee and Company.
Szostak, R. (1991), The Role of Transportation in the Industrial Revolution, Montreal:
McGill.
Sutherland, L.S. (1984), Politics and Finance in the Eighteenth century, London: Hambledon.
Tate, W.E. (1969), The Parish Chest: a Study of the Records of Parochial Administration in
England, 3rd ed., London: Cambridge University Press.
Thronhill, R. (1970), Turnpike Roads, Derbyshire Miscellany, 5, pp. 198-204.
Tull, C. K. (1971), The Hockliffe Two Mile Ash Turnpike, 1790-1807, Milton Keynes
Journal of Archaeology and History, I, pp. 50-67.
Tull, C.K. (1974), The Hockliffe-Stony Stratford Turnpike, 1706-1740, Milton Keynes
Journal of Archaeology and History, 3, pp. 72-7.
Turnbull, G. (1985), State regulation in the Eighteenth Century English Economy: Another
Look at Carriers' Rates, The Journal of Transport History, 3rd series, Vol. 6, no. 2, Sept., pp.
18-36.
Walker, T.E.C. (1966), Turnpikes to Guildford and Horsham, Proceedings of the Leatherhead
and District Local History Society, 2, pp. 286-8.
Webb, S. and B. Webb (1913), English Local Government from the Revolution to the
Municipal Coporations Act, vol. 5: The Story of the King's Highway, London: Longman
(Reprint: London: Frank Cass, 1963).
Wellbeloved, R. (1829), A Treatise to the Law Relating to Highways: Comprehending
Turnpike Roads, Public Bridges and Public Footpaths, London.
White, P.R. (1970), The Brigg Turnpike Trust in Early years, Lincolnshire Industrial
Archaeology, 5, pp. 2-7.
Willan, T.S. (1962), The Justices of the Peace and the Rates of Land Carriage, 1692-1827,
The Journal of Transport History, vol. 5, no. 4, Nov., pp. 197-204.
38
Wilson, R.G. (1966), Transport Dues as Indices of Economic Growth, 1775-1820, Economic
History Review, 19, pp. 110-23.
Woolf, A.H. (1913), A Short History of Accountants and Accountancy, London: Gee.
Yamey, B.S. (1962), Some Topics in the History of Financial Accounting in England, 15001900, in, W.T. Baxter and S. Davidson, eds., Studies in Accounting Theory, Homewood,
Illinois: Irwin.
Note Polanyi (1945,pp. 41-3) on the enclosure movement’s impact: '[the] poor man clings to his hovel
doomed by the rich man's desire for a public improvement which profits him privately'.
2
By an Act of Parliament, the road between Fornhill and Stony Stratford was placed under the control
of thirty two commissioners or trustees (Webb and Webb, 1963 p. 116; Pawson, 1977).
3
Several Select Committees on Acts for Turnpike Roads and Highways reported in the early nineteenth
century (BPP, 1810-11 (240) III. 855; 1819 (509) V. 339; 1820 (301) II. 301; 1821 (747) IV. 343).
4
Spiro (1956, p. 208) points out that 'by 1823, Macadam had personally visited and advised thirty-two
trusts; a total of eighty-five, responsible, for approximately 2,000 miles of turnpike roads, were in the
hands of his three sons; and another thirty-eight were being administered by "strangers" in accordance
with his "system"'. McAdam was also later involved in the consolidation of fourteen separate trusts
north of the Thames, which created the Metropolis Turnpike Trusts (Savage, 1961, pp. 29-30).
5
The Holyhead-London Road was earlier considered by the State vis-à-vis improving communications
with Ireland. Telford surveyed the route in 1815. The importance of this for State policy is evident: the
Treasury asked the House of Commons for a £2,000 grant intended for building a route as 'an enterprise
transcending the capacity of any existing local road authority’ (Savage, 1961, p. 28).
1
39