ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the validity of the professionalisation proposition that, within the context of an institutional strategy to control markets for professional services by means of various functionalist activities, the role of an individual within the institutional elite is crucial to the strategy's success. The Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (SAE) was well established by the time Richard Brown became its Secretary in 1892. It was the first professional accountancy body founded in Scotland and like most pioneering organisations, was advantaged and disadvantaged by that position. The SAE Council on 19 November received a letter from the Scottish Institute of Accountants in which it informed the SAE of its intention to petition for a royal charter, and hoping that the three Scottish chartered bodies would join with it in a scheme to regulate Scottish accountants.
