Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Ghino Valenti’s La teoria del Valore (1892)

Schullern’s review examines Valenti’s attempt to reconstruct value theory on Ricardian foundations. It places the book within Italian debates over Ferrara’s reproduction-cost theory and Menger’s marginal utility theory, while identifying Valenti’s proximity to Loria. Following the book’s three-part progression from conceptual definitions through doctrinal history to a positive theory, Schullern combines detailed exposition with a qualified verdict: Valenti’s analysis is searching and productive, but does not overcome the fundamental objections to cost theories of value.

The first part distinguishes wealth, utility, value, costs, and price. Wealth comprises goods whose acquisition requires sacrifice; utility concerns their subjective capacity to satisfy needs. Value, by contrast, expresses socially operative difficulties of acquisition and therefore permits quantitative comparison. Schullern isolates the narrowing of scope on which this distinction rests:

Daraus ergibt sich, dass Valenti nach dem Vorgange der meisten Italiener unter Valore nur die Kategorie des Tauschwertes versteht.

English translation: From this it follows that Valenti, following the example of most Italians, understands by valore only the category of exchange value.

For Schullern, restricting value to exchange value leaves Valenti’s treatment of use value and subjective value unconvincing, particularly in his polemic against Böhm-Bawerk. Valenti nevertheless distinguishes costs from value: costs comprise producers’ efforts, sacrifices, and risks, whereas even natural products can possess value. Price is value’s concrete manifestation and does not presuppose money. Although value can be compared quantitatively, its dependence on changing external circumstances prevents an exact, invariant measure; money supplies a common denominator for calculation rather than such a standard.

The second part traces theories from Ricardo to Menger and especially Böhm-Bawerk. Schullern credits Valenti’s command of the literature but judges his examination of the Austrian theory insufficiently penetrating. The third part consequently develops an alternative whose continuity with Ricardo is decisive:

Grundlegend ist und bleibt für Valenti die Lehre Ricardo's; um ihre Lücken auszufüllen, genügt es, die Gesetze aufzudecken, welche die Abweichungen von dem durch die Kosten bestimmten Normalmaasse des Wertes herbeiführen.

English translation: Fundamental for Valenti is and remains Ricardo's doctrine; in order to fill its gaps it suffices to uncover the laws which bring about the deviations from the normal measure of value determined by costs.

Valenti’s conceptual move is to subsume both costs and scarcity under the difficulty of obtaining goods. Under free competition, this difficulty consists exclusively in production costs; without free competition, the degree of scarcity determines it. Persistent deviations above or below costs become special or historical value laws, leaving the general law intact.

Schullern then follows the theory into distribution and social policy. For Valenti, exchange according to costs rewards each participant’s productive contribution without privilege or monopoly. Exchange governed by quantitative scarcity instead produces unjust distribution; scarcity, itself attributed to deficient competition, becomes the source of economic and social inequality. Only labor understood as burden can absolutely increase social wealth, while capital possesses value insofar as it embodies such labor. Economic progress therefore consists in combating scarcity, and the resulting policy arguments frequently turn on insufficient capital relative to labor and other productive factors.

The closing assessment praises the breadth and rigor of Valenti’s investigations, including monopoly, jointly produced and complementary goods, international exchange, services, and distributive incomes. The treatment of land rent receives particular commendation. Yet analytical achievement does not secure assent to the underlying cost theory. The book’s lasting merit, in Schullern’s judgment, lies in reopening the problem from distinctive angles:

Wohl aber reizt das vorliegende Buch zu neuerlichem Studium des Wertproblems unter den mannigfachen Gesichtspunkten an, die z. T. erst von Valenti mit voller Bestimmtheit gewählt worden sind.

English translation: The present book does, however, incite one to a renewed study of the problem of value from the manifold points of view which in part have first been chosen with full definiteness by Valenti.

The review thus records an engaged but unresolved confrontation between Ricardian and subjective-value approaches. Schullern regards Valenti as an important stimulus to further inquiry without conceding that this inquiry would ultimately vindicate Ricardo.