Title: The French Canal du Midi at the 17th century: accounting gaps and financial innovations

Authors: Jean-Guy Degos, Christian Prat Dit Hauret

Addresses: IAE Business School of Management, University Montesquieu – Bordeaux IV, 35, Avenue Abadie 33072 Bordeaux, France. ' IAE Business School of Management, University Montesquieu – Bordeaux IV, 35, Avenue Abadie 33072 Bordeaux, France

Abstract: Pierre-Paul Riquet build the Royal waterway of Languedoc (France) at the 17th century, waterway became then the Canal du Midi. In its time, it was the most significant European project. Inspired by other models of waterways built since Antiquity, it was used as model or example with much of others. To build their channel, Riquet and its collaborators chose a systemic approach and could reconcile the total aspect and the technical details of the project. The financing of the project should not surprise the modern investors: contributions of owners| equity, financing by public capital (the King) and private, loans and taxes are not made to surprise the contemporary accountants and the credit men. Lastly, all the archives of the channel were preserved, and we can study neither his technical details, but nor his accounting books day by day.

Keywords: Canal du Midi; Canal of the Two Seas; Colbert; cash accounting; project management; investment; Pierre-Paul Riquet; 17th century; labour process; France; French waterways; project financing; owner equity; public capital; private capital; loans; taxes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEA.2011.038963

International Journal of Economics and Accounting, 2011 Vol.2 No.1, pp.53 - 75

Published online: 21 Oct 2014 *

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