Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Émile Waxweiler’s La participation aux bénéfices (1899)

Schullern’s review assesses Waxweiler’s study of profit-sharing as a contribution to the economics and law of remuneration. Its central judgment is favorable but conditional: Waxweiler establishes the theoretical legitimacy and possible practical benefits of profit-sharing without claiming its universal applicability. Schullern follows the book’s three-part movement from empirical evidence through political economy to jurisprudence, beginning with its precise definition of the arrangement:

Dabei fasst er die Gewinnbetheiligung als jene Form der Entlohnung von Lohnarbeitern auf, bei der ein Antheil an dem eventuellen Gewinne des Unternehmens dem normalen Lohne zuwächst.

English translation: In doing so he conceives profit-sharing as that form of remuneration of wage-labourers in which a share in the eventual profit of the enterprise accrues in addition to the normal wage.

Profit-sharing thus supplements ordinary wages with a contingent share of enterprise profits. In Schullern’s account, Waxweiler’s historical survey and comparison of existing forms indicate increased labor productivity in most participating enterprises, with larger labor shares associated with stronger gains; workers’ incomes generally rise as well. These findings are qualified by the acknowledgment that experiments have frequently failed.

The theoretical section asks whether linking the price of labor to the profit rate is compatible with political economy. Schullern praises Waxweiler’s rejection of theoretical prejudices, including those associated with Leroy-Beaulieu, while emphasizing the distinction between economic justification and feasibility:

Er rechtfertigt sie dabei theoretisch, ohne zu verkennen, dass ihre praktische Durchführung vielen Schwierigkeiten begegnet und kaum je eine allgemeine werden dürfte.

English translation: He justifies it theoretically, without failing to recognize that its practical implementation meets with many difficulties and is hardly ever likely to become a general one.

As reported here, Waxweiler regards profit-sharing as capable of remedying a fundamental defect of wage remuneration and as consonant with industrial development. The review does not specify that defect, but it clearly identifies the limits of the claim: favorable results presuppose a degree of general education among both employers and workers and depend on the nature of the enterprise. In the legal section, Schullern singles out the treatment of how business accounts should be examined under profit-sharing, drawing attention to the administrative conditions of its operation.

Schullern’s final reservation concerns the omission of recent, important evidence. Nevertheless, he accepts the argument broadly and locates its particular value in its restraint:

Jedenfalls dürfen wir sie als wertvollen Beitrag zur Lösung des vielumstrittenen Problemes umsomehr bezeichnen, als der Verfasser sich vor einem absoluten Urtheile über die praktische Bedeutung der Gewinnbetheiligung gehütet und sich in dieser Richtung mit bedingten Schlüssen begnügt hat.

English translation: In any case we may describe it as a valuable contribution to the solution of the much-disputed problem, all the more so as the author has guarded against an absolute judgement on the practical significance of profit-sharing and has in this respect contented himself with conditional conclusions.

The review’s relevance lies in this calibrated assessment of a contested wage reform: empirical improvements support serious consideration, theoretical objections need not be decisive, and practical judgments must remain sensitive to institutional and enterprise-specific conditions.