Menger’s short review welcomes Sigmund Schiller’s German adaptation of Julius Kautz’s history of Hungarian economic ideas. Its significance lies both in making Hungarian economic literature accessible to German-speaking readers and in connecting the history of ideas with economic development and public policy. Menger announces his favorable assessment at the outset:
Das obige Werk, welches uns soeben zukommt, wird in den Kreisen der Freunde literaturgeschichtlicher Studien auf dem Gebiete der politischen Oekonomie nicht geringe Genugthuung hervorrufen.
English translation: The above work, which has just reached us, will arouse no small satisfaction in the circles of the friends of literary-historical studies in the field of political economy.
The linguistic barrier is central to this reception. Despite Kautz’s established scholarly reputation, the Hungarian-language work had remained largely inaccessible to economists outside Hungary. The German adaptation thus brings an existing body of scholarship into a wider intellectual conversation. Menger emphasizes its importance for economic literature generally and for Austrian economists in particular.
Limiting himself to a general characterization, Menger presents Kautz’s subject as encompassing economic ideas, economic life, and economic policy. Intellectual history here extends beyond scholarly treatises to journalism, parliamentary initiatives and pronouncements, and legislation. Such materials illuminate how economic thinking participates in public life, rather than merely recording a succession of doctrines.
The methodological center of Menger’s praise is the relationship between literary activity and economic history:
Daß der Verfasser die Literaturbestrebungen stets in enge historische Beziehungen zu der Entwicklung der Volkswirthschaft Ungarns bringt, bedarf für alle Jene, welche des Verfassers bisherige Publicationen kennen, kaum einer Erwähnung.
English translation: That the author constantly places the literary endeavours in close historical relation to the development of Hungary's national economy scarcely requires mention for all those who are acquainted with the author's previous publications.
This connection gives the recovery of Hungarian economic writing more than bibliographical value. It situates that writing within changes in material welfare, public finances, and institutions, making its practical significance intelligible. Menger’s endorsement therefore concerns both the breadth of Kautz’s evidence and the integration of intellectual and economic development.
The review concludes by praising Schiller’s knowledgeable, tasteful adaptation and the publisher’s production. Its larger scholarly emphasis is the value of crossing linguistic boundaries while preserving the historical relationships through which economic ideas acquired public meaning.
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