Farmaccounta
Farm Accountancy Data as a Source or the History of European Agriculture

In the wake of the agricultural crisis that hit the European countryside with the inflow of grains from across the Oceans, the leadership of European agriculturalists began thinking that only a through increased efficiency European agriculture could survive. Scientific book-keeping was to be an key component.

In the 1920s, agricultural associations and the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA), the predecessor of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, launched an ambitious and unprecedented attempt at international standardization of accounting rules in order to collect comparable accountancy data.

From 1929 to 1939 the IIA published yearly volumes of statistics concerning profit and losses of farms, their expenses and their revenue covering up to 19 countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

I will analyse the Farm Accountancy Statistics series published by the International Institute of Agriculture concerning the evolution of agriculture in different countries for the period 1928-1938, by examining:

1. the theoretical underpinnings of farm accountancy data;
2. the actors involved in the production of data at national and international level, including economists, agricultural associations and international organizations;
3. the data expected influence on policy;
4. the picture of European agriculture that emerges from the data.

As a result, the project will contribute to our understanding of the impact of protectionism, transnational networks and international organisations during the interwar period, a time of international economic tensions that increasingly resembles our own.

Project Infosheet

227 K