"Castrocaro and the Land of Sun: Local Administrative styles and accounting implications during the de' Medici and Lorena's dominations (1513, 1776)"

Motivation and Historical Context: The XVI century in Italy was characterized by the relevance of the de’ Medici’s family. Their administration over the Tuscany Region was considered one of the most enlightened in the Italian panorama (dal Pane, 1965). In the XVIII century, the passage of that Region to the Lorena’s domination represented an important moment of transition with respect to the previous political and administrative issues. In this context, Castrocaro and the Land of Sun were an area of strategic importance for both the families in terms of geographical, political and economical interests. Aim: The aim of the present work is to analyse the de’ Medici and Lorena’s approaches to the local management. The analysis encompasses the interactions between central and peripheral administrative levels and it is further improved with the related accounting implications. The study focuses on the area of Castrocaro and the Land of Sun and its interactions with the central administrative level. Framework: The aim of the study about the central-peripheral interactions is related to the public governance concept (Kooiman, 1993, Kooiman and van Vlieret, 1993, Rebora, 1999, Borgonovi, 2002). Despite that concept is epistemologically tied to the “ability to provide a guidance”, it is not of easy and common definition. According to Borgonovi (2002) there exists a difference between “government” (use of authoritative powers) and “governance” (creation of a consensus over some decisions), therefore Kooiman and Kooiman and Vlieret prefer pooling both the concepts under the same umbrella of “governance”, thus they concentrate on the different degrees of governance interactions. Furthermore Rebora (1999, p. 70) suggests to analyze both the formal regulations and the praxis that influence the socio-political decisions. As the work concerns two Ancient Régime dominations (Clegg, 1989, Goubert, 1976, Machiavelli, 1513), the concept of governance is necessarily read in the light of the historical patterns, for instance the absence of the modern State partition of powers (normative, judiciary, executive and administrative). Research Questions: Which are the administrative actors (public officials) in the de’ Medici and Lorena’s dominations? What is their role and the nature of their interactions (included accounting interactions)? Method: The study adopts a narrative method (Parker, 1999 and Napier, 2001) and it uses the primary sources (accounting books, exchange letters between the central and peripheral administrative levels and regulations) of the period 1513-1776. That material is stored in the Historical Archives of Castrocaro and the Land of Sun. Expected Results and contribution: The study will detail the administrative actors’ activities and their respective roles within the two families’ approaches to the local management. It will further specify the type of governance interactions privileged by the de’ Medici and Lorena’s and the related implications from both a socio-political and control view. From an accounting perspective the analysis will point out the principles of taxation, the contents and tools of reporting. The work seeks to contribute to the extant accounting literature in non-Anglo-Saxon countries in under-researched periods (Williams and Wines, 2006, Carmona, 2004 and Anderson, 2002). Furthermore, the original use of a local perspective (Castrocaro and the Land of Sun) instead of a central one gives more insights on the implications of the families’ dominance change. The paper will be divided in the following sections: the Introduction will emphasize the motivation to the study, the section about the Historical context will introduce the Italian situation at the end of the Ancien Régime. A third section will describe the Design of the study, encompassing both a theoretical framework and the methodological implications. A forth section will be devoted to the empirical results from the historical evidences of Castrocaro and the Land of Sun: governance interactions and accounting implications will be detailed. The final remarks will underlie the most relevant reflections in terms of governance.