Our paper is about the history of accountancy in Romania, in Transylvania. We develop this subject because we consider that is very important to know about the history of your own country, and from our point of view about the history of accounting, which is a very important component of nowadays life. This work paper presents the history of the accountancy trought the study of biography. So by describing the work of professor I.N. Evian, who was an important personality for the accounting history in Romania, we want to found historical elements that are not so able to see otherwise. The article wants to highlight the impact that the work of professor Evian had in the history of accounting in Romania. Also, by presenting the work of professor I.N. Evian in the context of the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies from Cluj, we want to prove that this institution was the first form of higher education in Transylvania in the accountancy field.accountancy, history, personalities, accounting theories

Crisan Teodora Viorica

Tiron Tudor Adriana

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
552 
PROFESSOR I.N. EVIAN-PRECURSOR OF ACCOUNTING SCHOOL FROM 
CLUJ 
Crişan Teodora Viorica 
Facultatea  de  Ştiinţe  Economice  şi  Gestiunea  Afacerilor  Universitatea  Babeş-Bolyai  Cluj-
Napoca 
Tiron Tudor Adriana 
Facultatea  de  Ştiinţe  Economice  şi  Gestiunea  Afacerilor  Universitatea  Babeş-Bolyai  Cluj-
Napoca 
 
Our paper is about the history of accountancy in Romania, in Transylvania. We develop this 
subject  because  we  consider  that  is  very  important  to  know  about  the  history  of  your  own 
country, and from our point of view about the history of accounting, which is a very important 
component of nowadays life. This work paper presents the history of the accountancy trought the 
study of biography. So by describing the work of professor I.N. Evian, who was an important 
personality for the accounting history in Romania, we want to found historical elements that are 
not so able to see otherwise. The article wants to highlight the impact that the work of professor 
Evian had in the history of accounting in Romania. Also, by presenting the work of professor I.N. 
Evian in the context of the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies from Cluj, we 
want to prove that this institution was the first form of higher education in Transylvania in the 
accountancy field. 
 
Key Words: accountancy, personalities, accounting teories 
 
Cod JEL: M41, B10 
 
I. Introduction 
The history of accounting is largely the history of civilization (Woolf, 1986). Professor Nicolas 
Feleaga supports this assertion, stating that, "It is easy to understand that one’s negligence to 
study  the  past,  to  know  one’s  history,  amputates  one’s  means  of  developing  the  country 
economically,  socially  or  in  a  field  less  enviable  as  accounting".  Accounting  is  a  human 
construct. In the present context, accounting cannot be understood without reference to the key 
personalities who have contributed to its development. (Parker, 1993) That is why this article 
aims to present the scientific work of one of the professors of the Academy of High Commercial 
and Industrial Studies in Cluj-Napoca, considered the first form of higher economic education in 
Transylvania.  
The importance of Professor I.N. Evian’s activity in the field of accounting, at the Academy of 
High Commercial and Industrial Studies in Cluj, supports the affirmation that this institution was 
the first form of higher education in the field of accounting, and that the work of the Professors of 
the Accounting Academy (and beyond) are the landmarks for today's accounting. The focusing of 
attention  on  the  Academy  of  High  Commercial  and  Industrial  Studies  in  Cluj  is  due  to  the 
historical particularities that this area of Romania experienced thanks to the Habsburg rule, which 
left its mark on accounting reasoning. The organization of higher education in Romanian, in 
Transylvania,  more  specifically  in  Cluj-Napoca,  had  innumerable  trials  and  obstacles,  but 
eventually succeeded in establishing a form of higher economic education, which is today the 
precursor of the largest Faculty of Economic Sciences in Romania.  
553 
Early accounting literature in Romania has its origins in the second half of the nineteenth century, 
in Transylvania. The first book in Romanian was written and published here, and here Professor 
Evian, from the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies would publish a book 
considered the root of the accounting literature in Romania.  The works written in the nineteenth 
century  and  then,  in  the  time  of  the  Academy  of  High  Commercial  Studies,  in  the  field  of 
accounting can be regarded as landmarks in the Romanian accounting of today. This paper is a 
description  and  a  qualitative  analysis  of  Professor  Evian’s  activity.  It  aims  to  identify  the 
Professor’s concerns at the Academy, in the field of accounting and journalism.  
This article is a part of and supports the paper that will discuss the beginning of the Accounting 
School of Cluj. The article is structured in three parts. The first part presents the methodology 
used in the approach and writing this paper. The second part is the content of the article, which 
presents  Professor  Evian's  work,  and a  brief  presentation  of  his  work  "Theory  of  accounts". 
Finally, we present the conclusions on the theme discussed. 
 
II. Literature review 
This work paper it can be placed together with the ones written in the history of accounting. 
Writings on this subject were written bz few other authors from our country: C.G.Demetrescu 
(1930), Daniela Artemisa Calu (2005), Dana Pop (2005), Adriana Tiron Tudor şi Dumitru Matiş 
(2010). C.G. Demetrescu (1930) wrote ,, The History of the Accountancy”, a book in which the 
author presents the development of the accountancy in the world from the very first beginnings 
till the second half of the 20
th century. In his book he included o little part about the development 
of the accountancy in Romania, too. 
Daniela Artemisa Calu and Dana Pop, are two authors that concentrated their work on the history 
of accounting in Romania. The first author wrote the book ,,The history and development in the 
accountancy  field  in  Romania”.  In  this  book  she  developed  the  evolution  of  the  Romanian 
accountancy, referring also to the international context. In her book, the author, presents few 
elements about the work and the theory developed by professor Evian. Dana Pop, whit her PhD 
thesis,  brings  new  elements  in  the  literature  about  the  Academy  of  High  commercial  and 
Industrial Studies from cluj and about the activity of the professors that activated here. From the 
title of the book we notice that it is especially a work in the field of economic history, but we 
discover that there is a lot of accounting history, too.  
Adriana  Tiron  Tudor  and  Dumitru  Matis  were  interested  in  the  accounting  history  in 
Transylvania. For this reason some of the elements presented in their article, could be useful for 
the writing of this paper. So, the literature which supported the writing of this article was, mostly 
Romanian, but  there were… international authors, like: A.Munslow (2001), MacDonald (1984) 
or Chua and Poullaos (1993), for the writing of the methodology. 
 
III. Methodology 
This paper falls into the category of those that choose to explain the history of accounting in 
terms of biographical investigations. Such studies propose various decisive factors as determiners 
accounting personification - social class (MacDonald, 1984), gender (Kirkham and Loft, 1993), 
political adherence (Willmott, 1986), the relationship with the state (Chua and Poullaos, 1993) 
and the relation with other professions. (MacDonald, 1984) 
In this paper, we have developed a qualitative study of Professor Evian’s activity, describing the 
events as they happened, in order to obtain a better picture of the past. The methodology used is 
the historiography and study of literature in terms of quality. The qualitative study, as stated by 
John  W.  Creswell,  quoted  by  Septimiu  Chelcea  (2007),  "is  an  approach  based  on  distinct 
methodological tradition, which analyzes a social or human problem".  The aim of our historical 
work is to  
554 
- tell the story of something of the past (Munslow, 2001) 
- become aware, assess and judge, and analyze the perspective of others who wrote about the 
same subject.  
In our study, we consulted the latest books and but also older ones, related to the activity of the 
Professor and that of the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies of Cluj. In these 
works, we have found paragraphs about the Professor's work. Our contribution is to give more 
details about the work of Professor I.N. Evian in a single work and to show the connection 
between this character and the importance of the Accounting School of Cluj. 
 
IV. PROFESSOR EVIAN'S SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY 
IV.1. The contemporaries and the subjects approached by them 
As we have already mentioned, the accounting is the result of human actions. Man created it to 
satisfy various needs; therefore, the human factor is very important for the study of accounting 
history. Accounting reasoning cannot be otherwise identified, but by studying the works and 
activities of those who took an interest in this area. 
The accounting department was founded at the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial 
Studies of Cluj. I. Evian was a member of this department, among other professors.  
 
Table 1: The accounting professors from the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial 
Studies of Cluj 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Personal raport 
 
These  professors  had  a  rich  activity,  analyzing  various  accounting  issues,  analyzing  various 
studies of foreign authors or were preoccupied with developing theories, such as Professor Evian. 
The work of these professors was published in the journal of the Academy, „Observatorul social-
economic” [The Social – Economic Observer]. 
A contemporary of Professor Evian and a leading figure, was Professor Dumitru Voina. In 1932, 
he published the book “Stages in the evolution of accountancy”. This book is very important 
historically because, based on this book; the author structures the accounting for the first time at 
an international level, over time. However, this Professor also developed the legal - economic 
theory. I. Tarta was a contemporary with Evian, and also his student. He prepared his doctoral 
thesis in 1940, "Industrial Costs and their calculation”, under the guidance of Professor Evian, 
who considered this work as being “the first Romanian scientific work on industrial costs". 
Iosif Gârbacea was concerned with the study of foreign influences in the field of accounting, so 
that he wrote two papers that reflect the Italian influence, and one related to the accounting 
regulations  in  Germany  ("Italian  Influence  in  Accounting”,  “German  accounting  rules")  and 
Dumitru Haşiegan and Octavian Lungu were concerned with the study of double entries and trial 
balance. Along with these professors from the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial 
Studies, C.G. Demetrescu, Spiridon Iacobescu şi Alexandru Sorescu, I.C. Panţu, V.M. Ioachim, 
professors at the Academy of Bucharest and Iasi, were contemporaries with Ion Evian. (Pop, D, 
2005)   
Ion Evian  Accounting   
Dumitru Voina  General  accounting 
Iosif Ioan Gârbacea  General  accounting 
Ioan Tarţa  Financial accounting  
Dumitru Haşiegan  Statistics  
Octavian Lungu  Accounting  
   
555 
 
 
IV. 2. Scientific work and activity  
The  specialty  literature  considers  Ioan  Evian  a  Luca  Paciolo  for  the  Romanian  accounting 
history. He developed a theory that finds its sustainability even today, that is why we considered 
that it the most representative model of personality of the Academy of High Commercial and 
Industrial Studies of Cluj. Professor Evian was born in Bucharest, where he attended middle 
school, high school and college. After graduation, he took his doctorate in Leipzig and became a 
Ph.D. in economic and financial sciences. 
Besides with his duties as Professor, Evian had various executive positions. Thus, before the 
establishment of the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies in Cluj, he had the 
following positions (Pop, D., 2005):  
Director of the State Fisheries (1914-1920) 
General Secretary for Transylvania, at the Industrial Affairs Department at the Ruling 
Council (1919-1920) 
Manager of the General Bank, of Tara Romaneasca, Cluj branch 
President of the Chamber of Commerce of Cluj (1920-1921) 
As of 1922 to 1943, he was a professor of the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial 
Studies in Cluj, but continued to have other positions, too: 
Member of the Supreme Council of National Economy (1922-1928) 
Director of the summer courses of “N. Iorga” People's University in Valenii Mountain 
Chairman of the Body of authorized and expert accountants in Romania (1942-1947) 
Founder  and  Chairman  of  the  Accounting  Research  and  Business  Economy  Institute 
(1943-1947) 
Ion Evian published numerous studies and articles in various periodicals, he wrote courses and 
published books. Of the courses he wrote for Academy students, we mention:  
Comerţ exterior şi legislaţie vamală”, [External commerce and customs legislation] 1924 
,,Studiul  practic  al  întreprinderilor  comerciale  şi  industriale”  [Practical  study  of  the 
commercial and industrial enterprises], 1927 
,,Economia întreprinderilor” [Economy of enterprises], 1939 
 
Among the books published by John Evian, "Theory of accounts" is his masterpiece. Besides this 
book, he also wrote, "Double Accounting", Bucharest 1946, "Industrial Accounting”, Bucharest, 
1947. These books are not his only books, but they are the most representative ones. 
"Theory of accounts", was published in Cluj in 1940. Based on this book, I.N. Evian draws a line 
between the accounting theories and the theories of accounts. According to the author's theories, 
the accounts represent “the attempt to explain and demonstrate the duble formalism, meaning the 
registration of any accounting transactions twice on opposite sides of the accounts" (Evian, IN, 
1940:7), while accounting theories “aim at systematic and main treatment of the entire area of 
accounting "(Evian, IN, 1940:8). Contemporary with Evian's theory, the patrimony theory was 
developed by the Sp. Iacobescu and Al. Sorescu. So, Evian's work represents the competing 
theory to the patrimony theory. Ch Cristea, quoted by D. Calu (2005), believes that, “if we take 
into consideration the keen spirit and the logic of explaining the economic phenomena, shown in 
Evian’s work on most issues, the denial of accounting as independent science can be made only 
by the fact that in our country, the main exponent of the economic theory related to double entry 
was blinded by the passion of the controversy with the representatives of the patrimony school”. 
In his study, Ion Evian started from the German accounting literature, and then he told his own 
opinion.  His  theory  is  purely  economic  and  categorically  rejects  the  scientific  nature  of 
accounting, which he thinks to be just a technique for completing the enterprise economy.  
556 
In the preparation of his theory, the author starts from the static theory on the balance. Thus, the 
company’s asset is represented by the estate, which, in his view, is made of all elements that help 
the company to achieve its goals, and that can be measured in money. Evian explains the debtors 
account, represented by receivable rights, not by tangible assets, as "an element of the assets that 
takes only a temporary form of impalpable wealth”. (Calu, DA, 2005:110). 
Professor Evian explains the liability as "the adjective liability describes the capacity of a person 
or a thing to be non-active, so it means to stay still. In this static situation, we may find the first 
explanation,  adequate  to  characterize  the  total  capital  of  the  company  by  classifying  it  as 
liability.” (Calu, DA, 2005:110)  
Evian presents the equality of the assets with liabilities by the following formula 
Total Assets = Total capital. 
The theory developed by Professor Evian was proved wrong (C.G. Demetrescu, Gr. Trâncu), but 
also supported (D. Voina). 
 
V.Conclusions 
The approach of accounting history from the point of view of personalities who distinguished 
themselves  over  time  in  this  area  is  something  increasingly  common  in  the  literature. 
Biographical references often help us to capture certain aspects of accounting history that would 
otherwise be unnoticed. So, to capture that Professor Evian is a leading figure in the accounting 
history of Romania, and that he represents the School of Accounting of Cluj, we tried to present 
his scientific work. 
Evian’s theory is one of the most representative and current theories of Romanian accounting, so 
that this professor may be considered Luca Paciolo for the accounting history in Romania. Ion 
Evian is considered a historical personality in accounting. Besides being a professor, he was a 
practitioner  and  a  representative  of  the  accounting  profession  in  Cluj-Napoca.  Besides  the 
presentation Professor Evian’s work and activity, our study may continue with the activity of the 
other professors of the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies in Cluj. 
 
VI.Bibliography 
 
Books 
1.Calu,  D.,  A.,  Istorie  şi  dezvoltare  privind  contabilitatea  din  România  Ed.  Economică, 
Bucharest, 2005 
2.Chelcea, S., Metodologia cercetarii sociologice Ed. Economica, Bucharest, 2007 
3.Evian, I.N.,  Teoria conturilor, Cluj-Napoca, 1940 
4.Pop, D., Şcoala economică clujeană interbelică Ed. Efes, Cluj-Napoca, 2005 
5.Woolf, A. H.  A short history of accountants and accountancy, Garland Pub., New York, 1986 
Articles 
6.Munslow, A., What history is, Institute of Historical Research, London, 2001 
7.Parker, R. H., The scope of Accounting History: A note, ABACUS, Vol. 29, No.1:106-110, 
1993 
8.Tiron Tudor, A., Dumitru, M., Options for a Modern Accounting System in 19
th 
century Transylvania”, Transylvania Review, Vol. XIX, Nr. 1, 2010 

PROFESSOR I.N. EVIAN-PRECURSOR OF ACCOUNTING SCHOOL FROM CLUJ

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