Carl Menger’s two-part newspaper literature report surveys recent political economy through its textbooks, theoretical investigations, and statistical reference works. Its organizing concern is how economic knowledge can become comprehensive, intellectually coherent, and useful to specialist and general readers. Part I compares ambitious presentations of the discipline; Part II moves from value theory to accounts of world trade and European and Austrian economic conditions. The report’s judgments reveal distinct standards for theoretical originality, collective scholarship, and empirical documentation.
Schönberg’s Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie answers a demand for a completed, up-to-date treatment of economic theory, policy, public finance, and administration. Menger explains its rapid success by both this breadth and the division of labour among established specialists. He welcomes the second edition’s revisions and additions, while asking future editions to reduce one-sidedness and reconcile differences among contributors. Comprehensive coverage does not by itself guarantee intellectual consistency.
Pierson’s Dutch textbook supplies the contrasting achievement of a unified authorial perspective. Although one researcher cannot match the detailed coverage of Schönberg’s collective enterprise, originality and coherence may justify preferring his work:
Die „Staatshaushaltungskunde“ des holländischen Gelehrten ist eine neue Grundlegung der politischen Oekonomie, ein Werk voll reformatorischer Gedanken, und würde wohl verdienen, auch in Deutschland einer allgemeineren Beachtung gewürdigt zu werden.
English translation: The Dutch scholar’s “Staatshaushaltungskunde” is a new foundation for political economy, a work full of reformative ideas, and would well deserve more general attention in Germany too.
Menger thus distinguishes the merits of an authoritative handbook from those of a theoretically reconstructive work. His international comparison also challenges the limits of German scholarly attention.
The notices of Marlo and W. Neurath extend this assessment to social philosophy and teaching. Menger welcomes the reissue of Marlo’s investigations into the organization of labour, emphasizing their importance for histories of socialism and communism and the originality of their substantive doctrines. His strongest anticipation concerns the forthcoming fourth volume, containing material Marlo had left unpublished after a discouraging reception. Neurath’s instructional work likewise exceeds its immediate purpose: Menger finds original investigations alongside its emphasis on the organic interdependence of social phenomena and the ethical dimension of economic life. Its attention to money, credit, and banking suits commercial education.
Part II opens with Count Kuefstein’s study of value. Menger reports its attack on Marx’s theory, which he characterizes as borrowed from Ricardo, but gives a more specifically affirmative judgment of its conceptual starting point:
Der Verfasser sucht hierauf das Wesen des Werthes festzustellen, in welchem er ganz richtig lediglich eine subjective Erscheinung erkennt.
English translation: The author then seeks to establish the nature of value, in which he quite correctly recognizes a purely subjective phenomenon.
This endorsement is narrower than approval of the whole account. Menger describes Kuefstein’s proposed grounds of value—expected utility or enjoyment and the labour sacrifice relative to personal capacity—without explicitly adopting them. The notice combines agreement on value’s subjectivity with a restrained appraisal of the pamphlet’s contribution.
The subsequent statistical reviews are connected by a tension between commercial policy and actual economic integration:
Die, trotz der rückläufigen Bewegung auf dem Gebiete der Handelspolitik nahezu aller Culturvölker, unablässig fortschreitende Bedeutung der internationalen Verkehrsbeziehungen hat allerorten das Bedürfniß nach statistisch-historischen Darstellungen des Weltverkehres hervorgerufen.
English translation: The steadily growing importance of international commercial relations, despite the retrograde movement in the trade policies of almost all civilized nations, has everywhere created a need for statistical-historical accounts of world commerce.
Neumann-Spallart’s surveys meet this need through accessible organization of commodities, monetary and transport media, and world trade, though Menger still finds gaps in their coverage. Scherzer combines historical and statistical treatments of production, consumption, and exchange to make worldwide labour intelligible. Brachelli’s comparative account of European states earns praise for clarity, concision, and attainable reliability. The German extract of Hungarian population statistics prepared by Lang with Keleti and Jekelfalussy broadens access to extensive data, aided by twenty coloured cartograms. Finally, Zapf’s Vienna Chamber of Commerce report exceeds its regional remit by documenting production and commerce across the monarchy.
Across both parts, Menger treats originality and dependable synthesis as complementary scholarly achievements. The report is valuable for showing how his explicit commitment to subjective value coexists with appreciation of pedagogical, social-philosophical, historical, and statistical work, evaluated according to its particular purpose.
This work was divided into 2 sections when it entered the library's research corpus—an apparatus for search and citation, not necessarily the author's own table of contents. Each title opens its summary.
Put a question to this work; the Librarian answers from its 2 sections and cites the passage.
Ask the Librarian