Conscious efforts to form a science of management were initiated in the United States in the late nineteenth century. This paper will inquire into the general conditions in which a scientific approach to management problems and the efforts to form a science of management were developed. The conditions might prescribe the essential character of the science of management in its early stages.
The possibility of a science of management was primarily perceived by H. Metcalfe and H. R. Towne in the 1880's. Thereafter many authors, mainly mechanical engineers, discussed management problems, but their interest was limited to the workshop. Therefore, the basic conditions for the birth of the new science of management might be thought to be in the workshop on which the top business managers focused their attention.
However, the top-managers of the emerging big businesses in the Middle West were not directly interested in the workshop, but in the creation of national marketing networks or the horizontal combination. The original unit in the formation of a science of management was the eastern metal-working industries which supplied parts or machine tools to big businesses in the middle West.
Cost reduction by the improvement of efficiency was the most important problem in the workshops of the eastern metal-working industries owners had abolished the sub-contracting system and directly controlled the workmen.
At the same time, metal-working factories had become increasingly specialized in the product they were manufacturing. Such specialization made it possible to achieve fairly complex division of labor and, as result, the work of a laborer could be measured objectively.
These were the particular conditions in the eastern machine shops from which the science of management emerged.

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Fixed Capital in most of the manufacturing industries increased remarkably as a result of the industrial revolution. Research in the history of accounting indicates, however, that modern accounting methods, including depreciation and cost accounting to deal with the increased fixed capital, were gradually developed in the late nineteenth century. During the more than fifty year time lag, how was fixed capital treated in the accounting of the manufacturing business ; what delayed the appearance of industrial book-keeping?
One important premise to remember is that during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries lease of the workshop, including machines and other equipment was quite common in England. Industrialists could, by leasing, be relieved of the burden of heavy investment for fixed capital. Accordingly, their only interest in regard to fixed capital was the amount of rent, and they did not recognize the depreciation of the shops and equipment leased. This fact seems to be one of the main reasons why modern industrial accounting was delayed until the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Before the end of the eighteenth century, however, some of the larger and leading enterprises had their own workshops and equipment. In such cases, they had to be aware of the annual depreciation of their own invested capital and the accounting of costs, which included transference of the depreciated capital value.
For example, Samuel Oldknow, a famous muslin manufacture, recognized the transference of the fixed capital value to the value of his products ; but he did not list the depreciation. The annual decrease in value, or depreciation of the fixed capital, was clearly recognized in the trading account of the Soho Engine Manufactory, managed by Boulton and Watt, but they were hardly concerned about the transference.
Thus, during the industrial revolution, the basic ideas about fixed capital had already begun to appear ; but so long as the lease of workshops was widespread, the concept of the fixed capital could not be generally recognized.

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This paper is concerned with the management organization of the Ono Gonemon family, descendants of the house of Ono Zensuke. The Ono Gonemon house was known by the name Kagiya in Kyoto and Izustuya in Nambu Koriyama. In Kyoto the family engaged in the trade of products from northern Japan, and acted as pawn brokers and second-hand dealers. They possessed a kabu license for waste paper and were active in second-hand trade as well as other businesses. In Nambu the family was involved in sake brewing, pawn brokerage, and money exchange, and served the han government in each of these occupations. In the present paper, house lineage, house precepts, and store rules are introduced, the management structure of the Nambu store and its relations with Kyoto are examined in detail, and business conditions and the organization of bekke branch families are also discussed. The management of commodities, organization of account books, accumulation of property, and sake brewing will be discussed in a subsequent article.

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