WHAT Dr. Bonar describes (p. 248 above) as "the finest English economic library in the world" is in the market. Professor Foxwell proposes to dispose of his unique collection of over 25,000 volumes and pamphlets, which he has spent more than twenty years in getting together with unrivalled knowledge and regardless of expense. Many of the volumes are luxuriously bound; some are, we believe, the only copies. to be found in the country; and some have the additional interest of coming from the libraries of Adam Smith, Arthur Young, and McCulloch, or of famous statesmen or collectors. There are also some highly valuable manuscripts. The literature of English Trade and Finance is very fully represented. It will be nothing short of a national calamity if this collection, which is to be sold entire, is allowed to leave the country. Most of the volumes relate to the French and English schools, or to social movements in England, and the collection is especially rich in the period prior to 1850. The library would be an untold treasure for the new London University. RECENT PERIODICALS AND NEW BOOKS Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. March, 1899. The Excess of Imports. Sir ROBERT GIFFEN. The excess of imports-183 millions for the United Kingdom in 1898-consists presumably of some 90 millions interest, 18 millions commissions, 70 or 80 millions freights. A check to our export tradenot yet proved-does not necessarily imply diminishing prosperity. Comparative Statistics of Australasian Railways. PRICE HOWEll. On the Representation of Statistics by Mathematical Formula. Part 11. Professor F. Y. EDGEWORTH. Attempted simplifications of Prof. Karl Pearson's elegant, but laborious, method of separating a given set of observations into two normal groups. The Statistics of Wages in the United Kingdom during the last Hundred Years. A. L. BOWLEY. Statistics regarding China. E. H. PARKER. The Economic Review. April, 1899. The Organisation of Industry. Right Rev. The LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM. English Wages and Foreign Competition. HERBERT W. BLUNt. 66 Happily behind Mill lies Ricardo, and behind the misleading formulation which Mill has given to the doctrine of Comparative Costs, a less detailed formula of Relative Advantage.' There is hinted a doubt whether the alleged absolute cheapness of foreign labour is so irrelevant to the interest of the native workers as the classical theory represents. There emerges the suggestion that "labour" may "take up a crusade" on behalf of technical education. But the benefit to "labour" is not quite certain: "More shirt-stuffs of a definite quality might fall to the share not only of labour but of the individual operative, and yet, if each portion of the share were of slightly less marginal utility, while some of the other articles in the recipient's budget were to rise in price. . . and that this is possible in the case of food is clear-an absolute rise in efficiency might be a relative fall in efficiency, measured by command over means of living. Another policy is to make the labour programme international, which may be possible within the Empire : "the recognition of the Empire as our economic unit for the struggle of the future; the extinction of protective tariffs within the Empire, even at some cost to ourselves-e.g., in the assumption of a part of the financial burdens of such of our colonies as can give adequate guarantees of their financial good behaviour in the future." The disquisitions, on "absolute" and "relative" advantage, or efficiency, which support these suggestions do not admit of abridgement. I. Saving and Spending. Prof. A. FLUX. A vindication of classical doctrines against the teaching that " underconsumption" is the cause of industrial depression. II. A Reply. J. A. HOBSON. The Foreign Policy of Collectivism. L. T. HOBHOUSE. Jingoism is a monstrous inconsistency in the apostles of social equality. It supports commercial competition and diverts, for the benefit of the investor, funds that collectivism needs for social reform. The Workmen's Side of the New Trades Combination Scheme. E. J. SMITH. Six substantial benefits accrue to the workmen, who in return have only to refuse working for those who transgress the compact. The National Review. The New Zealand Old-age Pension Act. Hon. W. P. REEVES. Any New Zealander who has come to the age of sixty-five after living not less than twenty-five years in New Zealand shall be entitled to 6s. 11d. a week or £18 a year, if his income from any source is less than £34 a year. Otherwise £1 is deducted from the pension for every £1 of income in excess of £34. There are also some moral disqualifications, e.g., " If any pensioner misspends, wastes, or lessens his estate or greatly injures his health, or endangers and interrupts the peace of his family." March. The Aged Poor. JOHN HUTTON, M.P. May. The Moral of Indian Countervailing Duties. M. M. BEETON. The Quarterly Journal of Economics (Boston). April, 1899. The Theory of Savers' Rent, and some of its Applications. C. W. MIXTER. The Study of Practical Labour Problems in France. WILLIAM F. WILLOUGHBY. The Gas Supply of Boston. III. JOHN H. GRAY. Can we keep a Gold Currency? CHARLES F. DUNBAR. There is no danger of the gold currency failing. That considerable amounts are liable to be drawn away is due to bad legislation, that they are soon recovered is due to natural advantages. American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia). March. Nationalization of the Swiss Railways. I. H. DIETLER. Wealth and Welfare. III. H. A. POWERS. May. Nationalization of the Swiss Railways. II. H. DIETLER. A Function of the Social Settlement. J. ADDAMS. Tendencies in Primary Legislation. W. J. BRANSON. Supplement to May No. The Foreign Policy of the United States. Political and Commercial. The Journal of Political Economy (Chicago). March, 1899. The Charge for Railway Mail Carriage. The GEORGE G. TUNELL. Development of Credit. CHARLES A. CONANT. Industrial Democracy. CHARLES ZUEBLIN. Some Social Applications of the Doctrine of Probability. OTTO AMMON. The form of the curve which represents the frequency of different degrees of ability is not that of a pyramid, but rather of [a vertical section of] "a somewhat flat turnip" :-genius and talent at one tapering extremity, at the other the extreme degrees of incompetence. Even income statistics, correspond to this distribution of ability [?] Yale Review (Newhaven). February, 1899. The Dynamic Law of Wages. JOHN B. CLARK. "Competition is forcing all values toward this level of minimum, no-profit prices. In the absence of movements that we term dynamic, all prices would reach that level and hold it." . . . "The profit that an improvement at first secures for an entrepreneur, competition wrests from him, and gives to labourers and capitalists."-Not so soon, however, but that the entrepreneur should have some inducement to make improvements. The movement of the standard of wages will be one of the chief studies of the political economy of the future. Value and its Measurement. D. I. GREEN. The Coin Shilling of Massachusetts Bay, II. WILLIAM G. SUMNER. Workmen's Compensation Acts. MORRIS F. TYLER. Denmark and its Aged Poor. A.W. FLUX. Journal des Économistes (Paris). March, 1899. Du Taux actual de l'Intérêt et de ses Rapports avec la Production des Métaux précieux et les autres Phénomènes économiques. R. G. LÉVY. Mouvement scientifique et industriel. DANIEL BELLET. Revue de l'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (du 15 Novembre 1898, au 25 Févrer 1899). M. JOSEPH LEFORT. Les dépenses militares de la France et de l'Allemagne. M. G. MOCH. April. Quelle est la véritable Définition de l'Individualisme? HENRY LÉON. Du Taux de l'Intérêt et de ses Rapports avec la Production des Métaux précieux et les autres Phénomènes économiques. M. R. G. Lévy. Mouvement financiel et commercial. M. MAURICE ZABLET. des principales Publications économiques de l'Étranger. MAURICE BLOCK. Les Finances italiennes. Le Marché à Terme en Grains à Londres. M. A. SAYOUS. Le Problème des Monopoles. May. La Conférence de La Haye. G. DE MOLINARI. La Réforme de l'Enseignement dans nos Écoles de Droit et la Tradition du Droit romain. M. E. MARTINEAU. Le Féminisme au point de vue économique. H. BOUET. Revue des principales Publications économiques en Langue française. M. ROUXEL. La Mine et les Mineurs. M. ED. RACOIN. Revue d'Économie Politique (Paris). February, 1899. L'Assurance ouvrière obligatoire. RAOUL JAY. Premiers Effets de la Loi Anglaise sur les Accidents du Travail. HY. WOLFF. Les Banques allemandes en cas de Crise ou de Guerre. A. E. SAYOUS. |