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Role Of Accounting Practices In The Disempowerment Of The Coahuiltecan Indians, Sarah A. Holmes, Sandra T. Welch, Laura R. Knudson

Accounting Historians Journal

This paper argues that a complex of accounting measures : account books, inventories of accumulated wealth, and detailed instructions for production performance : were used to inculcate Western values into the native population located at five Franciscan missions along the San Antonio River in New Spain (present-day Texas) from 1718 to 1794. Bolstered by the need to alleviate communications problems caused by extreme isolation, the missionaries constructed detailed mission documents that described the acquisition of scarce resources, reported the aggregation of material and spiritual mission wealth, and controlled daily production performance of the native population. In short, the resulting mission …