ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to anatomize or dissect the fee income of a major Scottish accountancy practice of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in an attempt to examine the postulate that contemporary accounting practice in Scotland was characterized by the early dominance of bankruptcy and its subsequent replacement by corporate auditing. Income obtained by Scottish accountants from sequestration during the nineteenth century, has received close attention from historians due to its alleged pivotal role in the parturition of the earliest organizations of professional accountants. The importance of trusts as a source of income for chartered accountants (CA) can be gauged from the regulations of the new professional organizations in Scotland and from descriptions of the composition of contemporary accounting practice. The charters of incorporation refer to the selection of accountants on large voluntary trusts. The employment of early CAs in connection with judicial references was initially less common than their involvement with remits.
