Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of William Smart (1903)

Schullern’s German review introduces the French translation of William Smart’s Distribution of Income, translated by Georges Guéroult with a preface by Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. He defines its immediate purpose as bringing the translation to readers more comfortable with French than English:

Es liegt uns eine Uebersetzung vor, wir können uns also im wesentlichen darauf beschränken, auf ihr Erscheinen diejenigen aufmerksam zu machen, welche leichter in französischer als in englischer Sprache lesen.

English translation: We have before us a translation, and we can therefore essentially confine ourselves to drawing the attention of those who read French more easily than English to its appearance.

The review outlines Smart’s progression from an examination of real and nominal monetary income to the processes of distribution. The latter discussion moves through the enterprise, its purposes and means, to wages, trade unions, rents, and the income of the liberal professions. This organization presents distribution through the interconnected activities and institutions that generate income.

Schullern’s interpretive emphasis falls on Leroy-Beaulieu’s preface. He reports its praise of Smart’s theoretical and practical knowledge, freedom from preconceptions, and sympathy for wage earners. These qualities accompany support for the free movement of labor and capital. Leroy-Beaulieu welcomes Smart’s contention that existing distribution embodies neither arbitrariness nor privilege and approaches justice as closely as possible. Dissatisfaction is connected instead with uncertainty about whether sufficient wealth exists to improve everyone’s condition.

In this reading, natural freedom and productive progress have greater significance for collective welfare than legislative intervention. Schullern places that interpretation within the prefacer’s established intellectual commitments:

— Wir finden in diesem Vorworte Leroy-Beaulieu, wie er ist und stets war, als überzeugten Vertreter des ökonomischen und sozialen Liberalismus.

English translation: — In this preface we find Leroy-Beaulieu as he is and always has been, as a convinced representative of economic and social liberalism.

The review thus combines a concise account of Smart’s analytical structure with an identification of the liberal interpretation supplied by his French prefacer. Its closing judgment characterizes Leroy-Beaulieu’s position without developing an independent defense of the distributive order.