[Rezension zu Pietro Sitta: L’aumento progressivo delle spese pubbliche]

Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Pietro Sitta (1894)

Schullern’s German review assesses Pietro Sitta’s published inaugural lecture at Ferrara for the academic year 1892–93. Praising its eloquence, patriotism, and scholarly understanding, he frames rising expenditure as a danger to states and citizens, while acknowledging that expanding governmental responsibilities partly necessitate it.

Growing national wealth can mitigate the burden of expenditure, but can also stimulate further spending. Neither prosperity nor enlarged state functions justifies unlimited growth. The review makes the boundary of legitimate expansion historically variable:

Auch die Möglichkeit der Erweiterung des Staatszweckes darf ja nicht als unbeschränkt gedacht werden, an einem bestimmten Punkte heisst es Halt machen; derselbe liegt freilich bei verschiedenen Völkern und auf verschiedenen Culturstufen verschieden hoch.

English translation: The possibility of an extension of the purpose of the state must indeed not be conceived as unlimited either; at a certain point one must call a halt; that point, to be sure, lies at different heights among different peoples and at different stages of culture.

This qualification combines fiscal restraint with recognition of differences among societies. The issue is not simply whether expenditure increases, but whether its pace and purposes remain defensible under particular conditions.

Schullern then considers the composition of expenditure. Debt interest and military costs impose especially heavy burdens. His treatment of military spending is qualified: its increase is regrettable, yet international conditions make it necessary. Restraint therefore confronts pressures that cannot simply be dismissed as discretionary extravagance.

The closing assessment connects these practical concerns with economic theory:

Sitta hat diese Momente scharf betont, den Zusammenhang des finanzpolitischen Problems mit der Theorie, insbesondere mit der Lehre vom Grenznutzen berührt und aus den Ergebnissen die Anwendung auf die Verhältnisse seines Vaterlandes gezogen.

English translation: Sitta has emphasized these factors sharply, has touched upon the connection of the fiscal-policy problem with theory, in particular with the doctrine of marginal utility, and has drawn from the results their application to the conditions of his fatherland.

Schullern endorses Sitta’s connection between fiscal policy, marginal utility, and Italian circumstances without explaining its mechanism. His favorable judgment rests on the lecture’s integration of public expenditure, contextual limits on state purposes, and the burdens of debt and military power.