Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Camillo Supino’s Il capitale salari (1901)

Schullern’s German review examines Supino’s theory of wage capital through a compact account of the book’s six chapters, concluding with qualified praise. Its central concern is Supino’s attempt to retain the claim that wages originate in capital while replacing a rigid wage-fund theory with a dynamic account of its formation and change.

The opening chapter distinguishes theories deriving wages directly from capital from those deriving them from the product of production. Supino’s criticism of the latter, particularly Walker’s position, establishes capital as the source of wages under the prevailing economic order. Yet this does not entail an unqualified acceptance of wage-fund doctrine:

Trotzdem acceptiert er nicht ohne weiteres die Lohnfonds-theorie; die Kritik dieser Lehre füllt die S. 13—15 und fordert die dynamische Betrachtung des Problems.

English translation: Nevertheless he does not simply accept the wages-fund theory; the criticism of this doctrine fills pages 13-15 and calls for a dynamic consideration of the problem.

Schullern explains the conceptual move: the portion of capital allocated to wages is itself a product of labour. Its magnitude changes with labour productivity, capital accumulation, and profit rates; production replenishes it, and its subsequent operation depends on the outcome of that process. The wage fund thus becomes something to be explained through economic relationships, rather than merely assumed.

The review then follows the book from the treatment of labour as a commodity to the definition and variations of the wage fund. Chapter two excludes labour whose remuneration does not come from that fund and examines the production costs of labour, which wages must cover. Schullern emphasizes the institutional assumptions behind the labour contract: the worker’s purported freedom, unrestricted competition among employers, and legal conditions amounting to the near-absolute rule of individualism. Chapters three and four define the fund and trace its changes through consumption, technical and unproductive capital, and the speed of capital circulation.

The final chapters bring this analysis into social policy, considering workers’ associations and state intervention before relating the wage fund to effective demand for labour and unemployment. Schullern presents Supino’s conclusion as a systemic indictment:

Der pessimistische Schluß, zu dem Supino gelangt, bedeutet eine Verurteilung des heutigen ökonomischen Systems, das sich den Produktions- und den Konsumtionsprozeß voneinander unabhängig abwickeln läßt und die Arbeit zu einer Ware macht, die der Arbeiter verkaufen muß, der Unternehmer aber nur kauft, wenn es ihm beliebt.

English translation: The pessimistic conclusion at which Supino arrives amounts to a condemnation of the present-day economic system, which lets the process of production and the process of consumption run their course independently of one another and makes labour into a commodity which the worker must sell, but which the entrepreneur buys only when it pleases him.

The asymmetry between compulsory sale by workers and discretionary purchase by employers gives the technical discussion its critical force. Schullern nevertheless distinguishes the value of Supino’s inquiry from assent to its conclusions:

Wenn ich auch gegen gar vieles in Supino's Buch und insbesondere gegen dieses Schlußurteil Einwendungen hätte, so halte ich es doch für sehr wertvoll, schon deswegen, weil es dazu anregt, manche Frage unter einem neuen Gesichtswinkel nochmals durchzudenken.

English translation: Even though I should have objections to a great deal in Supino's book, and in particular to this concluding judgment, I nevertheless consider it very valuable, if only because it stimulates one to think through many a question once more from a new angle.

The review does not develop these objections. Its final judgment instead locates the book’s relevance in its capacity to reopen questions about wage formation, labour demand, and intervention through a dynamic reconsideration of wage capital.