As accountants were determining the proper role to play at the beginning of the 1900s and well into the Industrial Revolution, early accountants like PW's (now PwC) Arthur Lowes Dickinson believed that an accountant should be an "impartial referee between business and government, dedicated to numbers and order." This was the predominant view of most British accountants at this time.

As we will later see, accountants chose a much different path. What do you think about Dickinson's approach? How would accounting be different now if that was the primary role of accountants? Would you have chosen accounting if you were limited to this role?