Railroad Regulation in the United States in the Nineteenth Century : A Lesson in International Accounting

In this paper we analyze the relation between the railroad regulations emerged in the nineteenth century in the Unites States and the establishment of accounting disclosure system in modern society. Through this analysis, we would like to provide a framework for exploring the social foundations of accounting disclosure carried by large enterprises in modern democratic societies. The main result is that there emerged accounting disclosure system because of having a remedying power over behaviors taken by large businesses in modern democratic societies.