Menger’s scholarly feuilleton surveys recent Austrian economic publications as evidence of intellectual renewal, especially among younger university scholars. Moving from methodology and economic theory to public finance, fiscal oversight, and statistics, it combines assessments of individual works with an argument about Austrian research’s growing strength. Its principal criteria are theoretical depth, critical engagement with earlier explanations, and breadth of inquiry.
The methodological opening establishes the survey’s polemical direction. Emil Sax’s discussion of economics’ nature and tasks contributes to the dispute between a comprehensive conception of economic research and a narrowly historical orientation. Menger emphasizes distinctions between theoretical and practical disciplines, the relationship between individualism and collectivism, and the social dimension of economic phenomena. Opposition to methodological exclusiveness does not mean rejecting historical scholarship. His praise of Böhm-Bawerk’s history and criticism of interest theories makes historical reconstruction an ally of theoretical inquiry:
Der Verfasser hat mit großer Kunst der Darstellung ein Bild der bisherigen Entwicklung dieser Lehre von den ältesten Epochen bis auf unsere Tage gezeichnet, die historische Darstellung unablässig durch kritische Ausführungen begleitend.
English translation: With great art of presentation the author has drawn a picture of the development of this doctrine hitherto, from the earliest epochs down to our own days, accompanying the historical presentation incessantly with critical observations.
The merit lies in joining the reconstruction of earlier doctrines to sustained criticism of their explanatory claims. Menger distinguishes this accomplishment from the positive theory reserved for Böhm-Bawerk’s forthcoming second part. Historical criticism prepares theoretical development without substituting for it.
Richard Hildebrand’s monetary theory likewise illustrates renewed theoretical ambition. Menger identifies its systematic range:
Er behandelt in fünf Capiteln die Frage nach dem Waarencharakter des Geldes, dem Bedarfe an Geld, dem Verhältnisse von Geld und Capital, nach dem Einflusse der Geldmenge auf den Zinsfuß und endlich von dem Einflusse der Geldmenge auf die Waarenpreise.
English translation: In five chapters he treats the question of the commodity character of money, of the requirement of money, of the relation of money and capital, of the influence of the quantity of money upon the rate of interest, and finally of the influence of the quantity of money upon commodity prices.
Recognition of originality does not imply agreement with every conclusion. The survey values sustained investigation of foundational relationships. Wieser’s theory of value receives a more specific conceptual assessment: criticism of earlier explanations, including socialist accounts, prepares a psychological interpretation grounded in the tendencies and aspirations of economic agents. Menger stresses its implications for prices, rent, wages, and interest. Foundational value theory thus promises explanatory gains across economics.
Entrepreneurial profit forms another substantial cluster. Alongside C. A. Schröder, Menger discusses Victor Mataja and Gustav Groß, connecting Austrian publications to wider German interest in the problem. Mataja investigates profit’s origin, its alleged tendency toward equalization, its economic function, its distinction from returns to capital, and the distributional effects of taxation. Menger separates critical achievement from constructive promise:
Die Schrift, das Erstlingswerk des jungen Autors, ist in ihrem kritischen Theile geradezu ausgezeichnet, in ihren dogmatischen Partien vielfach anregend, auf neuen Grundlagen in selbstständiger Weise fortbauend.
English translation: The writing, the first production of the young author, is in its critical part positively excellent, and in its dogmatic portions in many respects stimulating, building further in an independent manner upon new foundations.
Groß combines a history of doctrine with an analysis of enterprise, connecting profit to production costs, selling prices, competition, capital, and labor. Questions of social justification and workers’ profit-sharing extend the inquiry into distribution and reform. Menger’s appreciation of clarity and sober judgment complements his praise of theoretical innovation: the survey rewards different scholarly virtues without treating its authors as interchangeable.
The concluding sections broaden the renewal beyond abstract theory. Eugen von Philippović examines the Bank of England’s relationship to state debt and cash administration, a subject with Austrian relevance because of continental efforts to imitate English arrangements. Robert Meyer connects the history of taxation doctrines with taxes’ effects on private economic activity, fiscal justice, and taxation’s social task. Gustav Seidler brings institutional history to the assessment of proposals concerning Austria’s supreme audit authority. V. John’s history of statistics, reaching Quetelet in its first volume, addresses a significant scholarly gap.
By reserving established scholars for a later survey, Menger marks the selectiveness of his account. Its larger argument concerns a productive research culture sustained substantially by younger university scholars. Theoretical revival, institutional history, fiscal analysis, and practical reform appear as compatible undertakings. The article presents Austrian economics’ vitality through both the diversity of its subjects and the growing ambition of its explanations.
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