We would like to remind you that the 8th World Congress of Accounting Historians is to be held in Madrid, on 19th-21st July 2000.

The Congress will be organized by Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas (AECA), i.e. the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration, through its Comisión de Historia de la Contabilidad (Accounting History Commission), sponsored by the Ilustre Colegio Central de Titulados Mercantiles y Empresariales de Madrid (Official Institute of Graduates in Commerce and Business Administration of Madrid.)

The 8th World Congress of Accounting Historians coincides with the end of the second millennium of the Christian Era. This millennium has been precisely the period in which the Western Civilization found its origin, development and consolidation, building up on the foundations of the Ancient Roman Culture. At the same time, it was also the space in which accounting, an activity as old as Humanity, found its modern form in the shape of double entry. In this sense, the World Congress to be held the year 2000 constitutes a real milestone in the chain of our Congresses and has to take duly into account all these facts. Playing around this Leitmotiv, its logotype shows the image of Father Luca Pacioli, the man who divulged double entry, standing between a column symbolizing the Classical Antiquity, which incorporates in its shaft the ordinal number corresponding to the Congress, and a pen, the instrument used in merchants' writings and account books. Above Pacioli's head appear the seven stars of the Community of Madrid and, at the foot of the logotype, the acronym of the Congress made up of the capitals designed by Pacioli himself. In acknowledgement of the role of Ancient Rome in the construction of Europe and the Western Civilization, the motto of the Congress is written in Latin. Combining and playing with the ideas of Plato's Academy and Michel Foucault, past and present, accounting is exhorted to know in depth the paths followed, that is, its history, stating at the same time that this is actually the task of the incoming millenium, a task which is at every moment related to the present because, strictly speaking, there is no history of the past, but history of the present: the study of the paths followed to reach the point where we are. In this way, the past becomes present.

The 8th World Congress of Accounting Historians will be held in the premises of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. This state-owned University was founded in 1989 and is the youngest one in Madrid. Despite its youth, the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid has built a solid reputation as a center of research excellence as well as an institution which provides a comprehensive education to its students. The University has two campuses; one campus is specialized in social sciences while the other is devoted to polytechnic studies.

The sesions will take place on the social science campus of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. In addition to the regular services provided on a campus of this type, the University residence hall will be available to Congress participants. The social science campus is located in Getafe, a satellite town 11 kms (7 miles) from downtown Madrid. The town has good connections with Madrid by train and bus.

A special shuttle bus service will be arranged for Congress attendees who prefer accommodation in downtown hotels.

An academic event in combination with a plenary session of the Congress will be held at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, which is the oldest University in the Community of Madrid and one of the oldest in Spain.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Asturias has accepted the role of Honorary President of the Congress.

AECA was established in 1979 with the purpose of promoting professional activities and studies in the framework of accounting and business administration. In seventeen years it has gained general recognition and respect within the Spanish society and is the institution which issues the generally accepted accounting principles in Spain. The Ilustres Colegios Centrales de Titulados Mercantiles y Empresariales are the official associations to which all graduates in commerce and business administration who wish to exercise their activity as free professionals must belong. All these Colegios--about 40 all over Spain--are federated into a Consejo Superior de Colegios Oficiales de Titulados Mercantiles y Empresariales de España (High Council of Spanish Official Institutes of Graduates in Commerce and Business Administration) which gathers more than 20,000 free professionals from the whole country. Both the Consejo Superior and the Colegio of Madrid, which is the oldest of these bodies and was created in 1881, will act as co-organizers of the Congress.

Besides the Consejo Superior and the Colegio of Madrid, AECA will count on the cooperation of the five State Universities located in the Community of Madrid for the organization of the Congress: the already mentioned Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, as well as the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the Universidad Complutense, the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) and the recntly created Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid.

PLENARY SESSIONS

	PLENARY SESSIONS I		PLENARY SESSIONS II
	Gary J. PREVITS Global Accounting History. Scholarship in the New Millenium.		Yannick LEMARCHAND A Century of Research into Accounting History.
	PLENARY SESSIONS III		PLENARY SESSIONS IV
	Basil S. YAMEY Art and Accounting.		Richard F. FLEISCHMAN The Contribution of Archival Research towards Evaluating the Theory/Practice Schism in Cost Accounting History.