Schumpeter, “Zur Einführung” (1927)

Schumpeter’s introduction to Barone’s Grundzüge der theoretischen Nationalökonomie is at once a preface, a teaching program, and a compressed genealogy of modern economic theory. Its main thesis is that German economics needs fewer methodological battles and more disciplined training in analytical theory. Barone’s book, precisely because it is elementary, elegant, and Walrasian in descent, can help form the professional technique without which theoretical economics cannot become cumulative.

Schumpeter begins from a diagnosis of the German situation: economists have too long treated theory as if it were philosophy, divided into mutually exclusive systems and dogmas. Against this, he defines theory not as worldview but as a learnable instrument.

eine Denktechnik, die man einüben muß wie eine Sprache, um mitreden zu können.

English translation: a technique of thought that must be practiced like a language in order to be able to join the conversation.

This is the introduction’s central conceptual move. Theory is not diminished by being called technique; rather, it becomes the condition of serious participation. Only when economists share such a language can they stop reopening obsolete controversies and begin work on concrete problems.

Jetzt sehen wir das ein, jetzt könnte die analytische Arbeit am Einzelproblem beginnen.

English translation: Now we see this; now analytical work on the individual problem could begin.

The practical implication is pedagogical. A reliable tradition and professional opinion must be built through teaching. Schumpeter therefore values Barone not primarily as a complete system-builder but as a master of elementary exposition. Compared with Cassel, Barone offers less on money and cycles, but more on the foundations of theory and especially monopoly; for beginners, Schumpeter thinks, this is decisive.

mit so leichter und geschickter Hand, daß der Anfänger nach keinem besseren Buch greifen kann.

English translation: with such a light and skilful hand that the beginner can reach for no better book.

The essay then situates Barone historically. Schumpeter sketches nineteenth-century Italian economics as a decline from earlier achievement, followed by renewal through Menger’s influence and, more decisively for Barone, through Walras and Pareto. The point is not antiquarian: it identifies Barone’s book as part of the general-equilibrium lineage.

Beider Ahnherr ist Walras.

English translation: The forefather of both is Walras.

Barone’s theoretical importance, for Schumpeter, lies in helping move economics beyond the older marginal-utility formulation toward an equilibrium theory grounded in choice. In alliance with Pareto, Barone contributed to the shift by which the system of economic interdependence was no longer merely a psychology of utility but a formal analysis of acts of selection.

das Gleichgewichtssystem auf die Theorie der Wahlakte basierte.

English translation: based the equilibrium system on the theory of acts of choice.

Schumpeter’s portrait of Barone is admiring but qualified. He praises the studies Barone published in the 1890s, compares their importance to Edgeworth’s, and notes Barone’s unusual modesty in a discipline increasingly marked by self-advertisement. Yet the book at hand does not display the whole researcher. Its strength and limitation are the same: the teacher has deliberately restrained the theorist.

der Lehrer Barone hat dem Forscher Barone in diesem Buch einen unerbittlichen Kappzaum aufgeschnallt.

English translation: the teacher Barone has strapped an unrelenting curb-bit on the researcher Barone in this book.

That restraint produces simplicity, sometimes at the edge of correctness. Schumpeter notes that Barone occasionally returns to older, more accessible formulations and that some statements may trouble those fully trained in modern theory. Still, this is exactly why the book is useful: it is not the definitive research treatise Barone might have written, but a lucid initiation into the discipline’s working apparatus.

The introduction’s structure thus moves from institutional need, to the suitability of Barone’s textbook, to Barone’s place in the Italian and Walrasian tradition, and finally to a judgment on the translation. Its relevance lies in Schumpeter’s insistence that economics advances through shared analytical craft, not through endless foundational posturing. Barone matters because he helps make that craft teachable. Schumpeter closes by praising the translator for preserving both intellectual content and literary quality.

Die Übersetzung liest sich fast so glatt wie das Original und vermittelt den deutschen Lesern nicht nur dessen Inhalt, sondern auch dessen Charme.

English translation: The translation reads almost as smoothly as the original and conveys to German readers not only its content but also its charm.