Royal Society of London finances 1765-2010

     Preamble                           

This spreadsheet contains my transcriptions of the Royal   Society's annual accounts at ten-year intervals from the 1830s to 2010 (plus an attempt to recreate equivalent data for 1765). 

 It was created in an effort to understand the wider financial context in which the Society's publishing finances operated (i.e. the finances of publishing the Philosophical Transactions and the Proceedings of the Royal Society). I therefore purposefully   separated out all the costs/income I could identify that were related to   publishing the journals, even in those years when the Society's treasurers   did not operate a 'publications account' separately from the 'general   account' (or 'general operating budget'). There will be inconsistencies for   many reasons: change of accounting practices over the years; difficulty of identifying   journal-related costs/income; difficulty of separating internal paperwork   costs from journal costs; difficulty of identifying staff costs for   publishing journals... etc. But this is the best data I've got after 8+ years   of wrestling with the Royal Society archives.   

Contents                               

•  Tab1 README          
•  Tab2 The annual accounts, transcribed, 1765-2010. Originally in £ s   d, so I've added an extra column which converts the pre-1970 values into old   pennies (240d=£1). The sub-total categories are imposed by me (because   accounting practices changed so much over the years), and the values shown   for these categories are calculated by me, not shown in the original   documents. The row title makes this clear with 'calculated'. 
• Tab3 The long 18thC: this tab (and the next) is easier to use: it uses 'old pennies' as a   consistent (Excel-friendly) currency, and was created specifically to look at   changes in finances (and publishing finances) over the long 18thC. It has   lots of graphs looking at various aspects of publishing finances. 
• Tab4 The long 20thC: this tab (like the previous) is easier to use: it uses £ as its consistent   currency, noting the change to decimalisation in 1970. It was created   specifically to look at changes in finances (and publishing finances) over   the long 20thC. It has lots of graphs looking at various aspects of   publishing finances.
• Tab5 The long 20thC adjusted for inflation: This is a copy of   Tab4, with all the values adjusted for inflation. The values are in 1970£,   and were adjusted using the deflator data at MeasuringWorth.com. The trends shown in its graphs are therefore adjusted for inflation.   

 Sources                               

Prior to the 1830s, the Royal Society balanced its books every   November 30th, but did not usually produce something that we would recognise   as 'annual accounts'. The Treasurer would report to the Council on the 'cash   at hand' (essentially, the bank balance) at the year end, and comment on   whether it was up or down from last year. 

For 1765, the Treasurer reported   enough detail (in the Council Minutes) for us to recreate a sketchy 'annual   account'. 

From 1833, the annual accounts were published in Proceedings of   RS (under headings such as Treasurers' Report, or 'Anniversary meeting' or   similar). The Proceedings has been digitised, and is available from the RS   website. Some of our data for these years, however, comes from the archival   copies of the 'Balance Sheets', because these had more detail.

From 1897, the Society began to publish a Year Book   (essentially, a directory for the year ahead, but including reports on the   previous year). Some of the pre-1910 Year Books can be found on Google Books,   but for the rest of the 20thC, we had to check physical copies (which exist   in university libraries across the UK). Annual accounts appear in year books   from start; in addition to the general income/expenditure, there are details   about assets (cash at bank, property, investments) and separate accounts for   each named fund (giving the value of each, but also the holdings which   represent that fund). The list of separate funds gets longer as we go further   into the C20. By 1940, the accounts are rearranged into 4 categories: General   Purposes Accounts, Special Funds, Research Funds and Parliamentary Grants.   The latter 3 take up most space. 

By 2000, the annual accounts were appearing in a publication   known as the 'Trustees' Report' (and these are available from the RS website)    

Accounting Practices

There   are six changes in accounting practice that affect the comparability of these   data over time:               

• 1 What   is the financial year? The Society's traditional accounting year had ended on its   anniversary day, 30 November. During the twentieth century, its financial   year-end gradually moved earlier. This meant that, in 1939, 1968 and 1991,   accounts were prepared for a period less than 12 months. Most notably, the   financial ‘year’ 1991 was a mere 7 months. 
• 2 Is there a separate Publications Account? Prior   to the 1920s, the printing/publishing costs were presented as part of the   Society's overall accounts. A separate 'Publications Account' began to be   managed from the 1920s (separate from the General Account). But this   disappeared again (from the public presentation of the finances) in the early   21stC  
• 3 Decimalisation: until 1970, Britain used the imperial system, with 12 pennies   (12d) = 1 shilling, and 20 shillings   (20s) = 1 pound (thus, 240d = £1). In 1970, it changed to a decimal system,   in which 100 pennies (100p) = £1. Excel does not cope well with imperial £sd,   which is why Tabs 2 and 3 use 'old pennies'. For the long 20thC, values are   all in £.     
• 4 What   counts as income? From c.1910 until 1957, the   figure reported publicly for publications income included philanthropic   income received to support publications (e.g. grants, donations), as well as   commercial income (e.g. sales, royalties etc).    
•  5 How   are staff and overhead expenses counted? Staff   costs (and overheads) were sometimes charged to the publishing account, and   sometimes absorbed in the general Society account.     
• 6 The Royal Society   publishes other periodicals in   addition to its scientific research journals: the Year   Book, 1897; Obituary   Notices, 1932 (later Biographical   Memoirs); and Notes   & Records, 1938. For most of the twentieth   century, these periodicals had minimal circulation beyond the fellowship, and   therefore minimal sales; but they did have costs. Those costs were usually   (but not always) treated as part of the ‘publications account’.     The   1990 Accounts are the first (of the ones I've looked at) which has an   explicit statement of accounting principles