Exporting Marsala Wine and Importing Accounting Practices: The Business Relationship between Benjamin Ingham and Vincenzo Florio

The role played by English merchants in Sicily in the nineteenth century. Benjamin Ingham was the most successful merchant and from him Vincenzo Florio has learned how to become a successful entrepreneur. In this chapter, Di Pietra highlights evidences of the business relationship between Ingham and Florio and the characteristics of the Ingham business accounting system and practices. Ingham could be considered as the merchant who has exported Marsala wine throughout the world and has imported in Sicily accounting practices from the British accounting environment.