ABSTRACT
The extent to which the sons of Edinburgh Chartered Accountants (CAs) entered their fathers’ profession was a potentially important limitation to the recruitment of those from non-SAE backgrounds. The possibility existed that the rate of self-recruitment was so high that upward mobility into the profession was restricted. Conversely, self-recruitment may have been so low that the opportunities for the entrance of sons from inferior status origins were increased. In order to investigate the potential for self-recruitment in the Edinburgh CA profession between 1853 and 1914, a particular examination was undertaken of CAs entering the SAE from its inception in 1853-4 to 1892. As increasing numbers of CAs who had derived from low status origins entered the profession and failed to produce significant numbers of sons, the capacity for self-recruitment was reduced, and the profession was opened hypothetically to those from lower status origins - who, in turn, would provide even fewer future potential recruits relative to the expansion of the SAE.
