Schumpeter’s brief German review presents Seligman’s essays through the union of scholarship, teaching, and citizenship. Its organizing image is a commemorative medal bearing the inscription “Scholar, Teacher, Citizen.” Schumpeter treats these roles as the defining directions of Seligman’s career and the basis for welcoming the volume:
Dieser Band, der, zusammen mit einem zweiten finanzwissenschaftlichen Inhalts, Parerga vereint, welche keinen Raum in den großen Arbeiten des Autors fanden, spiegelt jene Richtungen alle drei wider und ist eine willkommene Gabe, die wir dankbar begrüßen.
English translation: This volume, which, together with a second one of public-finance content, unites parerga that found no room in the author's major works, reflects all three of those tendencies and is a welcome gift which we gratefully greet.
The review proceeds selectively through the book, emphasizing the enduring value of previously published research. The first four chapters concern the history of economic thought, drawing on Seligman’s exceptional library of early English economics. Schumpeter singles out the third chapter, on neglected British economists, for its specialist importance:
Den ursprünglichen Artikeln, die im Jahre 1903 erschienen, dürften die meisten von uns erst die Bekanntschaft mit Rooke und Longfield verdanken.
English translation: Most of us probably owe our first acquaintance with Rooke and Longfield to the original articles, which appeared in the year 1903.
Here scholarly achievement consists in recovering thinkers for the discipline’s collective knowledge. Schumpeter then turns to Seligman’s 1915 economic interpretation of the World War, praising its courageous appeal to reason and understanding of all standpoints. The 1887 study of railway tariffs and the Interstate Commerce Law remains, in his judgment, a leading contribution; its theoretical significance is marked by the ensuing controversy with Taussig over joint costs. The chapter on the crisis of 1907 likewise retains its interest.
The closing return to teacher and citizen completes the opening framework. Schumpeter offers an appreciative assessment rather than an extended theoretical critique: the essays matter both for specific contributions to economic inquiry and for the breadth of public responsibility embodied in their author.
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