Special preface Second World Congress of Accounting Historians banquet address

              SPECIAL PREFACE
Second World Congress of Accounting Historians Banquet Address by
M. ERNST STEVELINCK August 21, 1976*
The first feeling I would wish to express is a feeling of gratitude for the work which you have accomplished. Prior to and after the First International Symposium of Accounting Historians, in my capa-city as President of The Belgium National Committee, I tried to promote the creation of a similar committee in each country. Indeed many countries have such a committee. However, in the United States you have by far outdone all other countries as to the extent of your achievement. You not only carry the torch which lit up the Bibliotheque Royale Albert in 1970 where the first convention of Accounting Historians was held and to which experts from the four corners of the world came, but you have also fixed it on a solid basis and have helped put together all the elements needed to foster fu-ture research in the History of Accounting which the seekers of the world are trying to compile.
I wish to say a word to express my admiration for the Account-ing Historian Publication, the re-editing of the old accounting treaties, the organization of this Second World Symposium and your efforts towards finding the seat for the next Congress in four to five years.
It is with the greatest pleasure that I recognize some of my col-leagues and friends who were present at the First Congress. How-ever, it gives me even more pleasure to be meeting with distin-guished professors, some of whom had been in touch with me by correspondence. Together, I believe we can further this relatively new science which is called Accounting History. Must we still find a spot for the history in the teaching of accounting? If I were only talking to the American historians, my address would be unneces-sary, since the university professors present in this room have long
'Originally delivered in French. M. Stevelinck, as Secretary-General, Comité International des Historians de la Comptabilité, was in large part responsible for arranging the First World Congress of Accounting Historians in Brussels, October, 1970.
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