Andrew Primmer Accounting Historian
Publications

Publications & work in progress

For the full list of outputs, see also my Google Scholar and ORCID profiles.

Accounting — published and forthcoming

2026 · Forthcoming Profiting from the Wage Gap: Accounting, Race, and Extraction in the Northern Rhodesian Copperbelt, 1931–39 Accounting History Forthcoming
Forthcoming Accounting for Political Risk: Reserve Structures and Capital Portability in British Railways in Colombia, 1904–1929 Accounting Historians Journal Forthcoming

Accounting — under review

In Review Looking Through the Balance Sheet: Value Relevance, Dividend Restriction, and Colonial Railway Debt, 1905–1926 The British Accounting Review · with Martin Persson (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Accounting — working papers

Working Paper The Balance Sheet as Barrier: Accounting and the Beira Railway Act of 1914 Manuscript in preparation
Working Paper Taxing an Indivisible Railway: Administrative Allocation Across Five Jurisdictions in Southern Africa, 1926–1946 Manuscript in preparation
Working Paper Narrative Disclosure as Governance at a Distance: Accounting, Legitimacy, and Power in Early British Multinational Enterprise Manuscript in preparation
Working Paper Disclosing Less by Law: Confidential Treatment and the Retreat from Sales Disclosure in Interwar America Manuscript in preparation

Business and economic history — peer-reviewed articles

2026 · Forthcoming Excavating Global Capitalism: Internalisation, Hub-Based Processing, and British Silver Mining in Colombia, 1824–1899 Enterprise & Society Forthcoming
2025 Finding El Dorado: The Rise and Fall of the Jenks Business Group in Colombia, 1899–1929 Business History Review
DOI
2025 Mismanagement Amid Resource Abundance: Sovereign Risk, Private Sector Credit Rationing, and Economic Stagnation in Colombia, 1861–1898 The Economic History Review
DOI
2024 Market Failure, Information Asymmetries and Monopoly Profits: The Barranquilla Railway and Pier Company in Colombia, 1888–1933 Enterprise & Society
DOI
2023 British Overseas Railway Investment and Economic Development: The Colombian National Railway Company and Its Impact on the Colombian Interior Business History
DOI
2021 Railway Nationalism and «Railway Imperialism» in Colombia and the Economic Decline of Santander, 1907–1918 Revista de Historia Económica — Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History
DOI

Monograph

Under Contract Gentlemanly Capitalism and Business Imperialism: Colombia’s Insertion into the British World Economy, 1810–1956 Oxford University Press, British Academy Monographs series

Mentored by Professor Geoffrey Jones, Harvard Business School.

Selected conference papers

2026 Excavating Global Capitalism: Internalisation, Hub-Based Processing, and British Silver Mining in Colombia, 1824–1899 Academy of International Business (AIB), Manchester
2026 Accounting for Political Risk: Reserve Structures and Capital Portability in British Railways in Colombia, 1904–1929 Academy of Accounting Historians Brownbag Seminar
2026 Profiting from the Wage Gap: Accounting, Race, and Extraction in the Northern Rhodesian Copperbelt, 1931–39 British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA), Aston University, Birmingham
2026 Excavating Global Capitalism: Internalisation, Hub-Based Processing, and British Silver Mining in Colombia, 1824–1899 Business History Conference, Imperial College, London
2026 Profiting from the Wage Gap: Accounting, Race, and Extraction in the Northern Rhodesian Copperbelt, 1931–39 Economic History Society, LSE, London
2025 Profiting from the Wage Gap: Accounting, Race, and Extraction in the Northern Rhodesian Copperbelt, 1931–39 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Chicago (accepted; not presented)
2024 Quantifying Imperialism: Roan Antelope Copper Mines Ltd and the Economic Impact of Imperialism in Central Africa, 1927–1939 Association of Business Historians, York
2024 Accounting for “Railway Imperialism”: The Beira Railway Act of 1914 Accounting History Review Conference, Southport
2024 “Railway Imperialism” in South Central Africa: The Beira Railway Company and Colonial Expansion in Southern Africa Business History Conference, Providence, USA
2019 A Profile of a “Gentlemanly Capitalist”: Shirley Jenks’s Business Interests in Colombia Business History Conference, Mexico City
2019 British Overseas Investment Reconsidered: A Fresh Perspective from a Colombian Case Study Accounting History Review Conference, Edge Hill University
2018 The Colombian National Railway Company: Political Stability and Company Profitability—A Case Study Economic History Society Annual Conference, Keele University (New Researcher Paper)