Joseph A. Schumpeter · 1909
Schumpeter’s review, first published in 1909, assesses Kaulla’s chronological survey of roughly 150 value theorists. Kaulla seeks to explain the emergence of modern views of value through their connections with philosophical and economic-policy currents, while refraining from taking a theoretical position himself. Schumpeter judges this contextual approach productive but unevenly executed. His central reservation concerns the limits of treating value theory separately from the economic arguments it supports.
The review’s strongest praise goes to Kaulla’s second part, covering the Middle Ages through Adam Smith. Although it lacks the scholarly apparatus needed for a fully adequate history of doctrine, it effectively traces scholastic value theory to its milieu, follows the alternation of labor-value and use-value explanations, and identifies the influence of natural-law philosophy and Bacon. Schumpeter also appreciates Kaulla’s account of practically minded thinkers such as Davanzati and Barbon, whose attention to economic facts led them beyond prevailing philosophical influences.
His treatment of the remaining historical sections is more qualified:
Das Thema des ersten Teiles „Das Wertproblem im Altertume“, bedürfte wohl eines historisch-philologischen Spezialisten.
English translation: The subject of the first part, "The Problem of Value in Antiquity", would probably require a specialist in history and philology.
Kaulla’s ancient history gives substantial attention chiefly to Aristotle; elsewhere it establishes little beyond the existence of several meanings of value. The third part, extending from Smith to the middle of the nineteenth century, fares better. Its English chapter is nearly comprehensive, though Lauderdale receives insufficient attention and McLeod is absent. French theory is adequately represented, while the Italian discussion and the account of German contributions independent of Smith are too restricted. These judgments make breadth of coverage and recognition of independent intellectual developments important criteria of Schumpeter’s assessment.
The review then moves from particular omissions to a conceptual objection:
Denn je mehr sich die ökonomische Theorie entwickelt, desto mehr wird die eigentliche Wertlehre Dienerin der Resultate, die ihr folgen und desto weniger kann sie ohne ausführliche Rücksichtnahme auf die letzteren voll verstanden werden.
English translation: For the more economic theory develops, the more the doctrine of value proper becomes the servant of the results that follow from it, and the less can it be fully understood without detailed regard to the latter.
As economics develops, value theory becomes intelligible through the results it enables. An isolated succession of doctrines therefore becomes less adequate the closer the historian comes to contemporary theory. Kaulla’s brief fourth part excludes modern American and English contributions and recent Italian literature, while passing over nuances and controversies. Schumpeter acknowledges that its brevity belongs to the book’s design, but concludes that readers with even elementary knowledge of current value theory will learn nothing new from it.
The final concession is modest:
Ein zusammenfassender Überblick am Schlusse kann zu einer ersten Orientierung dienen.
English translation: A summarizing survey at the close may serve for a first orientation.
The review thus recognizes Kaulla’s usefulness for historical orientation while articulating a stronger requirement for the history of economic thought: doctrines must be understood both through their intellectual setting and through their place within developed theoretical arguments.
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