2,793 works, 150 years of economic thought. Each one summarized and searchable, with cited passages inside.
Can scarcity be incorporated into a cost theory of value without unsettling its Ricardian foundations? In this 1892 review of Ghino Valenti’s La teoria del Valore, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen tests that proposal against the claims of subjective value and marginal utility. Valenti treats production costs and scarcity as forms of difficulty in acquiring goods, linking departures from cost-based exchange to unequal distribution. Schullern’s interest lies in the tension between this ambitious explanation and its restricted conception of value as exchange value. He credits Valenti’s concrete analyses, especially of land rent, while withholding assent to the underlying theory. The review shows how a disagreement over value’s definition reaches into judgements about competition, privilege, and the justice of economic rewards.
Economic freedom need not imply unlimited competition or ownership: this tension gives Schullern’s brief review of Ghino Valenti’s study of Romagnosi its interest. Praising Valenti’s recovery of economic ideas scattered across philosophical, legal, and historical writings, Schullern singles out Romagnosi’s treatment of economic order as the foundation of legal order. He sees this connection as pertinent to contemporary efforts to move jurisprudence beyond formalism. His approval is discriminating: he finds little significance in Romagnosi’s resemblances to Menger’s value theory, while drawing attention to limits on property grounded in the owner’s labour and needs. The review offers a compact encounter with Schullern’s priorities as a reader of earlier economics—especially his interest in how liberal principles meet substantive legal and moral constraints.
Can restrictions on landed property protect peasant independence without compromising modern freedom? In this short 1892 review of Giulio Bianchi, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen endorses a reform programme that looks to older forms of tenure for practical remedies to Italy’s agrarian distress. Redistributing uncultivated land, he agrees, is insufficient if inheritance and sale soon dissolve the new smallholdings. His distinctive concern is to separate the usefulness of historically tested institutions from any wholesale return to medieval society. A pointed reservation—Bianchi’s omission of proposed Tyrolean farm registers—adds an Austrian reference to this sympathetic assessment. The review offers a compact argument for protecting cultivators through locally adapted property rules while retaining personal and political liberty.
Can cooperative self-help accommodate public assistance without surrendering its independence? In this 1892 review of Hans Crüger’s comparative study of cooperatives, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen challenges categorical opposition to state aid and limited liability while valuing Crüger’s practical expertise. Austrian experience supplies his test: protection for vulnerable members and temporary support for rural associations may serve cooperation better than strict adherence to principle. He likewise welcomes the cooperative’s promise as a school of solidarity, but asks whether moral progress can endure without material security. The review offers a concrete encounter between cooperative ideals and institutional choices, sharpened by Schullern’s insistence that membership figures alone cannot establish economic significance without knowledge of members’ social composition.
A rise in recorded spirits production may signal better measurement rather than more distilling; stock-exchange clearing balances may conceal the transactions a proposed tax would reach. Such problems give concrete substance to Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen’s report on Vienna’s statistical seminar in the winter semester of 1891/92. Recording investigations conducted under Inama-Sternegg, Schullern presents fiscal statistics as a practice requiring institutional knowledge, not merely numerical comparison. Participants’ confidence in income-tax reform sits alongside criticism of its evidentiary foundations, while municipal accounts expose the difficulty of comparing ostensibly similar revenues and costs. The report offers a close view of statistical training at work on legislative questions: how to distinguish taxable capacity from administrative proxies, and what revenue figures can—and cannot—tell us about taxation’s economic effects.
Bankruptcy law can distribute losses correctly while creating new ones. In this 1892 study, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen asks what liquidation destroys beyond the wealth already lost through insolvency: a factory’s coordinated machinery, a debtor’s useful possessions, or the productive activity interrupted by proceedings. Drawing on Menger’s subjective value theory and comparisons of European legislation, he distinguishes mere transfers of wealth from genuine economic damage. He also challenges proportional repayment: the same percentage loss may cost one creditor necessities and another only minor comforts. His proposals for preserving viable businesses and assessing creditors’ circumstances expose a tension between predictable legal rules and economically informed discretion. Readers encounter a concrete application of subjective value theory to the difficult question of whose losses bankruptcy law should recognize.
How much of a building’s gross return merely replaces capital lost through wear or impaired use? In this brief review of Amilcare Puviani’s study, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen connects that accounting question to fairness in building taxation. He welcomes Puviani’s demand for finer distinctions based on accurate cadastral records, while stopping short of endorsing every proposal for immediate adoption. The review’s interest lies in this qualified judgement: administrative difficulty cannot, for Schullern, justify ignoring a well-founded claim of tax justice. Readers encounter a concise assessment of where precise calculation should inform legislation—and why theoretical justification and practical implementation remain distinct questions.
Should economics begin with human beings or with ownership of the land? In this brief review of E. Masè-Dari’s inaugural lecture, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen singles out the consequences of making landed property the foundation of economic and social development. He welcomes the fresh perspective this offers on private landownership, while noting that Masè-Dari’s ardent praise of Loria coexists with criticism of his treatment of the problem. Schullern’s assessment remains expectant: a better answer to human claims upon land is promised, not yet delivered. The review captures the distinction between a provocative starting point for property reform and a solution that can actually be assessed.
Can proportional taxation be just when the economy that supplies taxable incomes is not? In this 1893 review of Emilio Cossa’s study of public finance, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen connects the tax problem to value: what citizens surrender must be considered alongside the collective needs that state services satisfy. He then identifies the demanding premise of Cossa’s account—perfectly free competition would align economic rewards with useful functions and make proportionate taxation compatible with equal relative sacrifice. Actual conditions unsettle that alignment. Appreciative without endorsing every conclusion, Schullern offers a compact examination of why fiscal justice cannot, in Cossa’s argument, be separated from relations between capital and labour.
Craft monopoly did not guarantee fraternity within Sicily’s guilds. In this brief 1893 review of F. G. Savagnone, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen draws attention to the harsh position of apprentices and journeymen and the lack of solidarity among masters. His economic-historical interest in a predominantly legal study also brings consular authority into focus: jurisdiction over craft matters could extend, through contractual arrangements, beyond explicit state concessions into private relations between masters and their corporation. The review offers a compact account of why Schullern considered Savagnone useful for guild research: it connects economic privilege with legal authority while keeping internal inequalities visible.
Can a programme of Christian social reform yield practical insights without securing assent to its religious premises? In this brief 1893 review of Karl Fischer’s Grundzüge einer Socialpädagogik und Socialpolitik, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen separates those questions. He concentrates on Fischer’s proposed cooperative state organized by occupational groups, noting its emphasis on domestic consumption, agricultural associations, stronger worker protection, and education through church and school. Schullern particularly approves the priority given to domestic consumption over exports, yet identifies gaps in Fischer’s reasoning and one-sided polemics. The review offers a compact example of critical engagement: a recommendation grounded in specific economic judgments, not wholesale acceptance of the author’s worldview.
Can the development of cooperative association be explained through human wants and mental life? In this brief 1893 review of Luigi Marino’s Presupposti delle scienze morali-sociali, Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen welcomes psychology as a starting point for economics without mistaking a coherent vision for a completed demonstration. He connects Marino’s progression from material to intellectual wants with Menger’s theory of needs and the practical question of a fixed working day. Marino’s hope that freely developing associations might reconcile individuals and collective authority receives sympathetic but qualified attention: Schullern finds missing proofs and fruitful ideas left unused. The review offers a compact encounter with an economist’s criteria for judging a philosopher’s account of cooperation—what illuminates economic life, and what still needs to be established.