Die Lehre vom Gelde in der Wirtschaft [review of Richard Kerschagl]

Eugen Peter Schwiedland, Die Lehre vom Gelde in der Wirtschaft (1922)

Schwiedland’s brief review presents Richard Kerschagl’s eight-chapter book as a historical inquiry into monetary theory since 1800, organized around methodological questions:

The author seeks to explain questions of method in their historical order.

The review moves from Ricardo and quantity theory through Müller, Knapp, Bendixen, Wieser, and Gesell, before identifying Kerschagl’s own position. Kerschagl attributes Ricardo’s difficulties in explaining changes in money’s value to the theory of absolute value. Wieser brings income into monetary analysis; Gesell receives qualified recognition despite errors in his writings.

Schwiedland cautiously locates the book’s distinctive contribution in an institutional account of monetary development:

K.'s own theory seems to be, that the development of money depends on the existence of clearing centres and of the growing importance of the modern state or of governmental administration as a centre of payments.

This shifts attention from theories of value to payment organization and state administration. Yet the transition from medium of exchange to legal tender remains reserved for a further book. Schwiedland closes by noting the bibliography’s attention to methodological influence. The review’s significance lies in its compact mapping of monetary debates and its identification of an institutional thesis whose fuller explanation is still pending.