Accounting and performance monitoring in Tuscany: Larderello, 1836–1858

This study examines the use of accounting for performance monitoring in a new industrial environment, the manufacture of boric acid in Tuscany during the middle decades of the nineteenth century. We provide a background context showing the growing significance of Tuscan boric acid as a source of borax for use in the industrialisation of Britain and France, and how the supply of this product came into the hands of François-Jacques Larderel. However, given the method of financing employed, Larderel was forced into fixed-price supply agreements with his financial backers, which influenced the nature of the accounting system and its use as a means of performance monitoring. We also reflect on possible sources of inspiration for the system utilised from 1836.