I am afraid that Spain and Portugal have not developed an original accounting thought, but they have rather been tributary of the ideas of other nations: France, Italy, Germany, and the United States, and even that with a notable delay. With regard to Spain, the reason might possibly be found in the fact that up to 1943, accounting, apart from private schools, was only taught in public commerce schools of diff erent levels with a main professional orientation and, hence, with pure pragmatic aims and scarce intellectual aspirations. The law of 1943 created in Madrid the fi rst Faculty of Political and Economic Sciences, in which syllabus accounting was included with two hours a week. However, in fact, accounting was not fully incorporated into the university up to the Decree of 1972 by which the public Commercial Schools of undergraduate level were integrated into the Faculties of Economics as University Schools.