Carl Menger’s review surveys recent economic publications, moving from reference works and systematic treatises to university teaching, journals, translation, and financial history. Its recurring concern is the organization and circulation of economic knowledge. Menger values rigorous scholarship, practical usefulness, and international exchange, while attending especially to Austria’s contribution to the discipline.
The opening discussion of the Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, edited by Conrad, Elster, Lexis, and Loening, celebrates a collaborative undertaking approaching its planned completion in 1893.
Das großartige Werk, ein wahres Denkmal deutschen Gelehrtenfleißes, geht solcherart seiner für das Jahr 1893 vorgesehenen Vollendung rasch entgegen.
English translation: The magnificent work, a true monument of German scholarly industry, is in this manner rapidly approaching its completion, foreseen for the year 1893.
The praise concerns both the scale of the enterprise and its usefulness. By bringing together economic history, legislation, statistics, and contemporary research, the reference work serves scholars, administrators, and political practitioners. Its bibliographies extend that service beyond the information contained in individual entries.
Seine Brauchbarkeit wird durch die reichen Literaturangaben über alle Zweige der Staatswissenschaften beträchtlich erhöht.
English translation: Its usefulness is considerably enhanced by the rich bibliographical references on all branches of the political sciences.
Menger thus treats bibliographic guidance as part of the infrastructure of research. Comprehensive coverage also requires contributors familiar with different national circumstances, a consideration that gives Austrian participation particular significance.
Die zahlreichen der österreichischen Gelehrtenwelt und dem Kreise österreichischer Praktiker entlehnten Mitarbeiter des Werkes sind eine Bürgschaft für die aufmerksame und wohlwollende Berücksichtigung österreichischer Verhältnisse.
English translation: The numerous collaborators on the work, drawn from the Austrian learned world and from the circle of Austrian practitioners, are a guarantee for the attentive and benevolent consideration of Austrian conditions.
This connection between scholarly collaboration and adequate representation recurs in the discussion of Adolph Wagner’s Politische Oekonomie. The participation of Buchenberger, Dietzel, and Bücher advances an extensive undertaking through a division of intellectual labor. Menger praises Wagner’s revised Grundlegung while explicitly identifying its state-socialist standpoint. His favorable assessment therefore need not imply doctrinal agreement. Buchenberger’s agrarian policy receives recognition for filling a gap in literature useful to scholars, politicians, and officials.
Eugen von Philippovich’s Allgemeine Volkswirthschaftslehre addresses the distinct need for a compact but scientifically rigorous university textbook. Menger distinguishes this pedagogical achievement from exhaustive treatises and popular compendia. He also emphasizes Philippovich’s mediating position between Austrian and German economics, evident in his selection of subjects, formulation of problems, and systematic arrangement. The hope that the book might ease disciplinary antagonisms makes intellectual mediation itself a scholarly merit. The review appeared in 1892; its bibliographic notice gives 1893 for Philippovich’s volume.
The Zeitschrift für Volkswirthschaft, Socialpolitik und Verwaltung, edited by Böhm-Bawerk, Inama-Sternegg, and Plener, exemplifies the institutional development of Austrian economics. Menger’s account of its contents displays the coexistence of theoretical, historical, statistical, and practical investigation. Taxation, social reform, industrial organization, methodology, monetary reform, and urban history all enter its scope. Proceedings of the Austrian economists’ society and reports on literature further connect specialized research with an organized scholarly public.
The concluding notices extend this institutional perspective internationally. William Smart’s English translation of Böhm-Bawerk’s work on capital and its favorable reception indicate the wider reach of Austrian research. Hermann von Schullern-Schrattenhofen’s study of recent Italian theoretical economics brings a comparatively neglected intellectual revival to foreign readers. Menger links that revival partly to Luigi Cossa’s encouragement of engagement with English and German scholarship, emphasizing exchange across national traditions.
Finally, Franz von Mensi’s archival history of Austrian finances from 1701 to 1740 demonstrates the scholarly contribution of the civil service. Its treatment of budgets, public credit, banking institutions, and state debt earns comparison with leading German economic history. The review consequently closes where much of its evaluative attention has rested: Austria’s place within a wider scholarly world. Across these publications, Menger recognizes progress not only in theoretical argument but also in reference tools, teaching, research institutions, translation, and archival inquiry.
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