Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk on Ignaz Pisko’s Currency Proposals (1888)

Böhm-Bawerk’s journal book review examines Pisko’s proposals for resuming specie payments in Austria-Hungary and internationally regulating monetary standards. It moves from an account of Pisko’s opposition to gold to an assessment of his Austrian policy recommendations, ending with a criticism of how he weighs competing arguments. The central distinction is between the feasibility of an internationally coordinated monetary arrangement and the persuasiveness of Pisko’s case for adopting it.

Pisko maintains that there is insufficient gold for universal adoption of a gold standard and that economically weaker states could not prevent gold outflows. His alternatives are a return to silver or internationally coordinated bimetallism:

Er plaidiert für die möglichst allgemeine Rückkehr zur einfachen Silberwährung, die durch Jahrtausende sich in der Praxis wohl erprobt habe, oder wenigstens für die allgemeine Annahme der Doppelwährung, die er — gewiss mit Recht — unter der Voraussetzung einer allgemeinen internationalen Münzeinigung für durchführbar hält.

English translation: He advocates as general a return as possible to a pure silver standard, which has proved itself well in practice over millennia, or at least the general adoption of bimetallism, which he—certainly rightly—considers feasible on the condition of a general international monetary agreement.

The reviewer’s parenthetical assent is narrowly conditional: he accepts the practicability of bimetallism under international agreement, without thereby endorsing Pisko’s preference for silver. For Austria, Pisko recommends waiting until the threatening danger of war subsides, then adopting bimetallism if international agreement becomes possible. Otherwise, Austria should restore the silver standard independently, even in isolation.

Böhm-Bawerk challenges the comparative assessment of risks supporting that fallback:

Die grossen Gefahren eines solchen isolierten Vorgehens sind dem Verfasser nicht entgangen, doch schlägt er sie — wie mir scheint, in etwas parteiischer Unterschätzung — für erheblich geringer an als die Gefahren der Goldwährung.

English translation: The great dangers of such isolated action have not escaped the author, yet—as it seems to me, with a somewhat partisan underestimation—he rates them as considerably smaller than the dangers of the gold standard.

The objection is not that Pisko ignores counterarguments, but that he assigns them insufficient weight. Böhm-Bawerk finds little novelty in a controversy already extensively debated; Pisko’s effectiveness instead comes from a skilful distribution of “light and shade,” emphasizing favourable considerations while treating opposing reasons more lightly. The resulting balance supports his conclusions, but rests too heavily on subjective estimates to compel conviction. The review’s relevance lies in this separation of conditional monetary feasibility from evidential judgment: acknowledging a workable institutional arrangement does not establish that its advantages outweigh the risks of alternative policies.