Economic, financial and accountancy analysis of Spanish port authority board of directors' regulations (19th and 20th centuries)

Abstract

The present work deals with some functions which constituted the central objectives of the administration responsible for constructing and exploiting Spanish ports; it expressly deals with regulations concerning organisational and administrative tasks and the creating of the port authority (works) board of directors and the regulations issued for their functioning. Analysing the regulations revealed two areas of responsibility in how the port authority board of directors were organised: the economic, accountancy and financial area and the technical area. This work concentrates on the first of the aforementioned areas, reflecting the administrative organisation and highlighting the port authority board of directors' accountancy and financial characteristics. This study could lead to further investigation such as verifying the effective application of regulations by a particular port authority (works) board of directors and making an empirical analysis of the data provided by the accountancy documentation which led to applying the regulations.