Viktor Mataja’s German review evaluates the fourth edition of Luigi Cossa’s handbook, published in 1887. Its favorable assessment emphasizes concise exposition, systematic coverage, and usefulness for teaching public finance. Mataja presents the revised handbook as an accessible synthesis supported by international scholarship.
The review follows Cossa’s progression from the subject and development of financial science through public expenditure and revenue to their relationship, including public debt. A survey of the literature supplements this systematic treatment. Mataja’s account makes compression an intellectual and pedagogical achievement: a brief introduction can still accommodate the economic, political, and legal dimensions of public finance.
His clearest methodological judgment joins institutional breadth to balanced argument:
Cossa nimmt in seiner Darstellung thunlichst Rücksicht auch auf das Finanzwesen der Selbstverwaltungskörper und liebt es bei streitigen Fragen das Für und Wider mit grosser Objectivität zu skizziren.
English translation: In his exposition Cossa takes account, so far as is practicable, of the finances of the self-governing bodies as well, and is fond of sketching the pros and cons of disputed questions with great objectivity.
The attention to self-governing bodies extends financial analysis beyond central government. Equally important, Cossa’s treatment of disputed questions presents competing considerations without sacrificing impartiality. Mataja thus locates the handbook’s value not merely in the information it condenses, but in the habits of judgment its exposition encourages.
The updated bibliography reinforces this appraisal by connecting elementary instruction with scholarship in several European languages. Rather than developing a competing fiscal argument, Mataja stresses the qualities that make Cossa’s synthesis dependable: orderly presentation, international learning, institutional range, and fair treatment of controversy.
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