Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Augusto Graziani’s Istituzioni di Economia politica (1904)

Schullern’s review assesses Graziani’s textbook as a distinguished contribution to Italian economics, especially strong in theoretical exposition. Its governing judgment is that selective engagement with competing traditions can produce conceptual clarity without sacrificing scholarly breadth. Graziani generally keeps pure theory distinct from economic history, policy, and the description of economic forms, while drawing freely on Italian and foreign scholarship. Schullern explicitly praises this eclecticism rather than treating it as a lack of theoretical commitment.

The review locates the textbook’s analytical care in its opening treatment of self-interest and the economic principle:

Wie eingehend, aber auch unter welchem Gesichtswinkel der Verfasser seiner Aufgabe zu entsprechen sucht, zeigt beispielsweise seine auf den ersten Seiten gebrachte Darstellung des Begriffes „Egoismus“ und des Wirtschaftsprinzipes in deren Bedeutung und Tragweite.

English translation: How thoroughly, but also from what point of view, the author seeks to fulfil his task is shown, for example, by his exposition, given in the first pages, of the concept of "egoism" and of the economic principle in their meaning and scope.

Methodology and value theory receive particular attention. Schullern highlights Graziani’s engagement with Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, Marshall, and their recent critics. He regards the account of subjective value as exceptionally clear, comprehensive, and concise: its importance lies both in making a fundamental controversy accessible and in showing its bearing on practical questions. The review therefore values theoretical exposition partly for its capacity to connect disputed concepts with economic problems.

Schullern then follows the textbook’s five-book structure. Basic concepts lead to production, where practical issues inevitably enter, including absenteeism, which he identifies as an especially Italian concern. The third book devotes more than a hundred pages to exchange value and presents the economic preconditions of exchange in the spirit of Menger’s school. The fourth addresses income distribution, bringing property and socialist doctrine into view:

Die Einkommensverteilung bildet der noch immer üblichen Systematik gemäß den Gegenstand des vierten Buches; hier muß Graziani auch zum „Eigentume“ und damit zur sozialistischen Doktrin Stellung nehmen; er tut dies mit größter Sorgfalt und Vorsicht auf den Seiten 307—331; der Verfasser gelangt zur Ansicht, eine allgemeine Theorie des Eigentums habe es zu erklären und nicht den Versuch zu machen, es zu rechtfertigen, da es ja unter allen Umständen stets nur als Folgewirkung jeweils gegebener Tatsachen erscheine.

English translation: In accordance with the still customary systematics, the distribution of income forms the subject of the fourth book; here Graziani must also take a position on "property" and thereby on socialist doctrine; he does this with the greatest care and caution on pages 307—331; the author arrives at the view that a general theory of property has to explain it and not to attempt to justify it, since under all circumstances it always appears only as a consequence of the facts given in each case.

The distinction between explaining property and justifying it is the review’s sharpest conceptual point. As Schullern reports Graziani’s position, property must be understood as the consequence of given circumstances, not defended through a general theory. He also singles out the discussion of a generalized theory of rent. The fifth book treats the means facilitating economic exchange; a separate theory of consumption is deliberately omitted. Brief and predominantly appreciative, the review presents Graziani’s achievement as a disciplined synthesis whose strengths are theoretical discrimination, careful exposition, and an explanatory approach to contested institutions.