What is it about?
We examine the family’s use of correspondence to an extensive network of spies, called privy friends, to secure allegiances, obtain information and help the family increase its agricultural land-holdings. We also examine the use of correspondence to facilitate cash flow through strategies to manage indebtedness.
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Why is it important?
Most accounting history research has focussed on books of accounts. We expand this focus by examining the correspondence of the family. This reveals far more than can be ascertained from books of accounts and highlights the need to look for data from a variety of sources if we hope to understand the role of accounting in history.
Perspectives
This research was fascinating in revealing how the aristocracy would avoid paying its bills to merchants and the way they used spies to gather intelligence on both friends and rivals.
Andrew Farley Read
University of Canberra
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Spies, debt and the well-spent penny: accounting and the Lisle agricultural estates 1533–1540, Accounting History Review, May 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2016.1187638.
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