Naming and Branding: Accountants and Accountancy Bodies in the British Empire and Commonwealth 1853-2003

The number of professional accountancy bodies and accountants within the British Empire and Commonwealth has greatly expanded within the last 150 years. The names of these bodies have followed a formula pioneered in Britain in the 19th century and certain designations, notably "chartered accountant" have evolved as brand names. Access to and use of these brands has spread not with colonization but with decolonization of the settler colonies and then the nonsettler colonies. This reserach paper charts these developments, noting the apparent paradoxes of the proliferation of royal charters in an increasingly non-monarchical UK, charters in republics, and how each country’s experience has been different. It concludes with a look at branded accountants in a global economy. Read the preliminary draft paper “Naming and Branding: Accountants and Accountancy Bodies in the British Empire and Commonwealth 1853-2003” by R.H.Parker, University of Exeter, UK. (References to developments in Canada are on pages 12-14)