Viktor Mataja: Die theoretische Nationalökonomie Italiens in neuester Zeit (1892)

Viktor Mataja’s review evaluates Hermann von Schullern-Schrattenhofen’s 1891 survey of recent Italian economic theory. Its governing distinction is between a critical adjudication of doctrines and a contribution to the history of economic literature and thought. Since Schullern primarily reports significant developments, Mataja judges him by the importance of that undertaking and the quality of its execution.

Was den ersten Punkt anbelangt, so ist dafür der Umstand wohl entscheidend, dass die neuere theoretische Nationalökonomie Italiens sehr reich und in lebendiger Entwicklung begriffen, aber kaum genügend allgemein bekannt ist.

English translation: As regards the first point, the decisive circumstance is surely that the more recent theoretical political economy of Italy is very rich and engaged in lively development, yet is scarcely sufficiently known in general.

Mataja presents Italian economics as a productive combination of inherited doctrine, receptiveness to new ideas, and original contributions. Its scholars preserve what remains valuable while assimilating innovations through careful engagement with international literature. Their reception of German and Austrian scholarship gives the survey particular interest for its intended readership. Making Italian theory better known serves Mataja’s conception of political economy as an international science.

The review then turns from the survey’s justification to its organization. After a brief account of Italy’s economic revival, emphasizing L. Cossa’s influence, Schullern arranges material by the subjects of conventional economics textbooks rather than by individual thinkers or works. Mataja regards this arrangement as the means of preserving coherence without repetition or excessive length. It also makes the book useful for researchers seeking Italian treatments of particular theoretical problems.

Bei seiner Berichterstattung hat sich der Verfasser grosser Kürze beflüssigt, was zweifellos die Last der Arbeit nur erhöht hat, denn, wenn irgendwo, so gilt es in der Wissenschaft, dass die Mühe nicht mit der Länge, sondern mit der Kürze der Darstellung wächst.

English translation: In his report the author has striven after great brevity, which has doubtless only increased the burden of the work; for if anywhere, it holds true in science that the labour grows not with the length but with the brevity of the exposition.

Compression is both the survey’s achievement and its limitation. Mataja observes that reducing a doctrine to its simplest formulation can diminish its apparent significance by removing supporting arguments and distinctive nuances. Yet restoring those features would compromise the advantages of brevity and clear organization. He also questions whether some terminological and school disputes receive more attention than their importance for modern economics warrants.

Dies sind aber nur Kleinigkeiten, bei denen Verschiedenheiten der Auffassung wohl möglich sind und die jedenfalls den Wert der Schrift nach keiner Richtung hin wesentlich berühren können, der durch ihre Gründlichkeit und Objectivität hinlänglich gewährleistet ist.

English translation: These, however, are only trifles, on which differences of conception are quite possible and which in any case cannot in any direction essentially affect the value of the work, a value sufficiently guaranteed by its thoroughness and objectivity.

The favorable verdict rests on thoroughness, objectivity, and usefulness: the book offers both an introduction to contemporary Italian theory and a reliable guide to original sources. Mataja closes by welcoming Schullern’s proposed extension to other branches of Italian political economy, beyond the existing brief appendix on economic history and statistics. The review’s central contribution is thus an appraisal of scholarly mediation: it explains why a disciplined, accessible account of another country’s theoretical work matters, while acknowledging what such accessibility necessarily leaves out.