Industrial Accounting Theory and Practice: Cost Accounting in the Belgian Coal Industry During the First Half of the Twentieth Century

This paper describes the accounting practices in a number of Belgian coal-mines and compares them to contemporary textbooks. Accounting practice and unit cost calculation in the coal industry are shown to have differed from that of the textbook models. While the major reports received by management included technical information, financial accounting information and cost accounting data, such as a breakdown of unit cost, less attention was paid in them to profitability or sales. Cost calculation was exclusively approached from a historical, ‘full’ cost angle, though it should be recognized that strongly varying practices concerning asset capitalization and depreciation give a different meaning to ‘full’ as between the various mining concerns studied.