This paper explores the extent to which accounting for public corporations is shaped by dominant societal discourses, rather than by characteristics of the firms accounted for.  With a particular focus on the Anglo-Saxon sphere that spearheaded the development of the corporation, the paper traces the development of the concept of the corporation from its medieval roots to the present day. The inquiry focuses specifically on how the concept moves between emphasising either of two basic understandings: the corporation as an aggregation of individuals and the corporation as a natural entity. The development of the corporation is related to the development of accounting for public corporations from the early 19th century to the present day, in which similar changes in the understanding of the accounting entity can be identified. Overall, the exploration indicates that accounting seems to follow changes in the concept of the corporation that has been largely shaped by legal and later economic discourse, rather than the other way around. While an increasing emphasis on an entity understanding of the corporation in accounting that took place in the late 19th and early 20th century could potentially be explained by the emergence of large, widely held public corporations, a reemphasis on the aggregation of individuals view that underlie the move towards fair value accounting since the late 20th century has no similar referent, but appears exclusively driven by changing conceptions of the accounting entity.