Productivity? – Yes, but subject to sustainability! An evidence of (re)emergence of accounting for sustainability from the French agricultural authors from the XVII to the beginning of the XIX centuries

Abstract

Five decades ago, first works and researches that have as title or subject « Envi-ronmental accounting », « Ecological accounting », or « Social accounting » have emerged. In these works, there are notably examples of accounting for strong sustainability approach in the agricultural sector. This paper searches for account-ing for sustainability premise in the French agricultural accounting literature of XVII-beginning of XIX centuries. It demonstrates that this literature presented some strong sustainability issues, although as a productivity and innovation dif-fusion condition, even earlier that the term of “accounting for sustainability” ex-isted.