Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg, Die Quellen der historischen Preisstatistik (1886)

Inama-Sternegg’s methodological article surveys European sources for historical price statistics and assesses their evidentiary value. Its central argument is that long numerical series cannot support reliable economic history without criticism of how observations were produced. The opening situates this problem within a comparatively mature field:

Von allen Zweigen der Statistik ist wohl keiner so frühzeitig und so umfassend einer historischen Behandlung zugeführt worden, als wie die Statistik der Preise und Löhne.

English translation: Of all the branches of statistics, none has probably been subjected to historical treatment so early and so comprehensively as the statistics of prices and wages.

The first section traces the conjunction of historical inquiry and statistical analysis through Bodin, Unger, and Adam Smith. Historical prices matter not simply as isolated facts but as evidence of changing economic conditions. Unger exemplifies the movement from collecting observations to explaining their regularities:

Wie Süssmilch von der Regelmässigkeit in den populationistischen Vorgängen, so ist auch Unger von der wunderbaren Ordnung, die er in der Bewegung der Fruchtpreise vorgefunden hat, überrascht und angeregt worden, den Ursachen dieser Regelmässigkeit nachzugehen.

English translation: As Süssmilch was by the regularity in population processes, so Unger too was surprised by the wonderful order which he found in the movement of grain prices, and was moved to inquire into the causes of this regularity.

Despite subsequent scholarly and administrative collecting, abundant figures have not secured a dependable account of price movements. Inama-Sternegg locates the principal difficulty in insufficient source criticism. The remaining six sections examine the circumstances under which prices were recorded and the conclusions each source type permits.

Section two gives priority to regular official observations of actual market prices. Their strength rests on informed observation of numerous transactions, not merely on administrative authority. Comparability requires attention to commodity quality, quantity, locality, and time. Examples from Paris, Arnhem, Rome, German towns, and Austrian territories show why recording procedures matter as much as chronological reach. Strasbourg illustrates a differentiated municipal practice:

In Strassburg wurde auf Grund der Marktlisten in jeder Woche durch den Magistrat eine Zusammenstellung der Getreidepreise mit Unterscheidung des höchsten, niedersten und Mittelpreises gemacht. Diese Listen sind seit 1591 vorhanden ⁶).

English translation: In Strasbourg a compilation of grain prices, distinguishing the highest, the lowest and the mean price, was made every week by the magistracy on the basis of the market lists. These lists are extant from 1591 onward 6).

Such distinctions preserve information that a single price would conceal. Conversely, mixed sources, irregular observation dates, uncertain procedures, and undocumented conversions can compromise an apparently substantial series.

Section three examines estate and institutional records. These can approach municipal observations in value when they register market conditions, but accounts of individual purchases or sales do not automatically constitute market statistics. English collegiate records illustrate this distinction. Eton’s grain-linked rents created an incentive for careful price observation, yet interpretation still requires scrutiny of grain quality, local measures, and editorial transmission. Oxford’s compiled accounts present greater problems of continuity. Institutional provenance thus explains both the purpose and the limitations of an observation.

Sections four and five distinguish observed transactions from administratively prescribed or reconstructed prices. Official tariffs primarily record intended regulation. Frequent revision may make them useful for longer-term tendencies, but they cannot reliably capture short-lived fluctuations. Retrospective calculations for taxation, rent adjustment, or redemption payments are statistical constructions whose authority depends on recoverable methods. Inama-Sternegg consequently advocates editions retaining original notations alongside consistently converted figures and contextual evidence concerning quantities, tariff changes, weather, and social events.

Section six turns to private evidence:

Die privaten Quellen sind theils chronistische Aufzeichnungen, theils mercantile Listen (Tarife), theils endlich Rechnungs- und Haushaltungsbücher, welchen die Compilationen von Preisangaben angereicht werden können.

English translation: The private sources are partly chronicle records, partly mercantile lists (tariffs), and partly, finally, account and household books, to which the compilations of price data may be joined.

Chronicles preserve episodes of scarcity and abundance, but their attraction to exceptional conditions limits their testimony about ordinary prices. Account books offer stronger possibilities when observations recur within a stable institutional and local setting. Their evidentiary force depends less on sheer quantity than on repetition and internal consistency. Section seven places compilations of scattered quotations lowest in the hierarchy: heterogeneous places, commodities, and recording practices prevent them from independently establishing continuous movements, although verified entries can supply context or fill gaps.

The article connects statistical comparability to the institutional history of record-making. Its programme is critical publication rather than indiscriminate accumulation. The concluding appeal to metrology and numismatics makes the reconstruction of measures and monetary values integral to interpretation: explaining historical price movements requires testing apparent numerical uniformity against the heterogeneous origins of the evidence.