[Rezension zu M. Schraut: Die Organisation des Credits; System der Handelsverträge und der Meistbegünstigung]

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: Review of Two Books by M. Schraut (1886)

Böhm-Bawerk’s brief review jointly assesses Schraut’s Die Organisation des Credits (1883) and System der Handelsverträge und der Meistbegünstigung (1884). Its central judgment concerns their success as accessible syntheses:

Beide Bücher haben einen compendienartigen Charakter. Sie geben in knapper und gemeinfasslicher Sprache einen vollständigen Abriss alles Wissenswerthen über die in den Titeln bezeichneten Gegenstände.

English translation: Both books have the character of a compendium. In concise and generally intelligible language they give a complete outline of everything worth knowing about the subjects designated in their titles.

The review moves from form and coverage to readership and intellectual value. Although chiefly addressed to a broader public, the books also merit specialists’ attention:

Sie sind nach ihrer ganzen Anlage wohl zunächst für das grössere Publikum berechnet, sind aber auch für den Fachmann wegen der Klarheit, Besonnenheit und Unparteilichkeit der in ihnen niedergelegten Urtheile von Werth.

English translation: By their whole design they are doubtless intended in the first place for the wider public, but they are also of value to the specialist on account of the clarity, level-headedness, and impartiality of the judgements laid down in them.

Böhm-Bawerk thus makes clarity, considered judgment, and impartiality the grounds for scholarly usefulness alongside public accessibility. His closing endorsement situates both books within the growing importance of credit and international tariff policy in the modern economy. The review offers a compact appraisal of their orienting value, without developing separate accounts of Schraut’s substantive positions on either subject.