Fritz Machlup’s Review of Richard von Strigl’s Einführung in die Grundlagen der Nationalökonomie (1938)

Fritz Machlup’s book review evaluates Richard von Strigl’s introductory economics textbook chiefly as an achievement in teaching: a compact exposition that brings beginners directly into economic analysis without sacrificing essential theoretical tools. Its structure combines a comparison of American and German-language textbook practices, a chapter-by-chapter account of Strigl’s treatment, and a brief concluding endorsement. Machlup establishes his judgment immediately:

This is an introductory textbook and an excellent one as such.

The praise depends partly on the institutional setting. Strigl’s book can be completed in a fraction of a semester, but Machlup sees this as an advantage in German and Austrian universities, where textbooks are seldom required or even recommended. He contrasts the abundant, mostly mediocre American elementary textbooks with the scarcity of accessible German-language introductions. The established German works he names are substantial volumes burdened with bibliographies and footnotes. His question about whether popular exposition was thought beneath professorial dignity makes accessibility an intellectual virtue rather than a concession to weaker readers. Röpke and Strigl appear as exceptions to this pedagogical pattern.

Machlup then follows the textbook’s eight chapters, emphasizing the speed with which analytical instruction begins. The opening chapter moves into supply and demand by page two. Marginal utility is absent from that chapter, while the second develops marginal physical returns and marginal cost alongside a discussion of population. Machlup records this distribution of concepts without treating it as a defect: his emphasis remains on the economical progression from prices to production conditions and then to distribution.

The third chapter introduces factor prices and the marginal-productivity theory of wages. The fourth brings the roundaboutness of production into relation with wage-fund and marginal-productivity theories, a coordination Machlup connects to Strigl’s earlier Kapital und Produktion. This is the review’s most specific account of Strigl’s theoretical method: concepts associated with capital theory are presented together with the explanation of factor remuneration. The fifth chapter extends price analysis to monopoly, monopolistic competition, price fixing, interdependence, and fair prices. Machlup’s favorable assessment of these opening chapters rests on their combination of compression and coverage, not on brevity alone.

The remaining chapters broaden the analysis toward money, policy burdens, and public intervention. Machlup explicitly defends the comparatively substantial allocation to money:

This is not too long, since the chapter includes a discussion of credit policies, of their effects upon the capital structure, of the business cycle, and of foreign-exchange rates.

The justification shows why chapter length must be judged by explanatory scope. Monetary analysis includes credit’s effects on the structure of production as well as cyclical fluctuations and exchange rates. The seventh chapter examines the shifting incidence of taxation, social-security and wage regulations, and tariffs, placing comparative costs and international trade within that discussion. Machlup cannot find an English equivalent for its German heading; instead, he explains its scope through the economic problems it addresses.

The final chapter concerns economic policy, which Machlup calls a delicate subject in a German book at the time. His description highlights Strigl’s diplomatic handling of the opposition between collective welfare and private interests:

In a very diplomatic way the "common good" is contrasted with the "individual interest"; it is shown that the "common good" is often merely a slogan exploited for the interest of small groups who try to obtain for themselves protection and subsidies at the expense of the rest of the community.

Here the review identifies a critical use of economic reasoning: claims made on behalf of the community can conceal benefits directed to particular groups. Machlup endorses the distinction between professed public purposes and the distribution of actual gains and burdens. His concluding praise for the book’s clarity and brevity thus covers both its instructional organization and its capacity to illuminate policy claims. The review’s central concern is how much coherent economic understanding an introductory text can deliver with minimal expenditure of the student’s time.