Catholique, till lately the organ of the Cercles d'Ouvriers Catholique, La Revue Catholique des Institutions et du Droit, and the splendid dictionary of Political Economy (Staats-Lexicon), published by Herder. The Kaweah Experiment in Co-operation. By W. M. CAREY JONES. A detailed account of a co-operative-not to say, socialist-colony, founded in 1884, and consisting at present of 150 persons. Trades Unions and Apprentices. By EDWARD W. BEMIS. The proportion of trade unionists in the United States who attempt to restrict the number of apprentices is very small, less than 16 per cent. of the great body of organised labour; the proportion of those who succeed in the attempt is still smaller. Some reasons justifying the attempt are stated. Trade-schools, and the attitude of trade unionists towards this proposed substitute for apprenticeship are considered in conclusion. Among the Notes and Memoranda may be noticed the clear account of the German sugar tax and bounty. Journal des Économistes (Paris) 1891. July. Une Page de Biot en 1828. Par M. LAMÉ-FLEURY. Renouvellement du Privilège de la Banque de France (suite). Par M. ADOLPHE COURTOIS. Souvenirs de France: Lettres inédites d'un Magistrat Étranger. Par M. G. TRICOCHE. Revue des Principales Publications Economiques de l'Etranger. Par M. MAURICE BLOCK. Un Précurseur des Physiocrates-Cantillon. Par M. ROUXEL. An Analysis of the Essai. La Vie du Mineur. Par M. DANIEL BELLET. August. Les Conséquences du Retour au Protectionnisme. Par M. G. DE MOLINARI. Maintains that the new French tariff will cause a rise of at least 25 per cent. in the prices of necessaries, without any compensating advantage to the producer. Les Retraites Ouvrières. Par M. EUG. ROCHETIN. La Doctrine du Droit Naturel. Par M. COURCELLE-SENEUIL. [Continued in September.] Natural Law, which served a useful purpose from the time of Greek tragedians till Montesquieu, as indicating the notion of equity transcending and informing written law, took in Rousseau the dangerous form of untaught justice capable of guiding men if civilization were replaced by nature'; and emerged later, on the one hand in the futile literary subtleties of the eclectic or spiritualiste' philosophy headed by Cousin, and on the other hand in anarchic and impracticable Socialism. Rational' should be substituted for 'natural' in law and in morality, and education should be once more conducted with sincerity, the loss of which has mainly contributed to lower the national moral tone. Le Nouveau Programme du Parti Socialiste en Allemagne. Par M. A. RAFFALOVITCH. Revue Critique des Publications Economiques en Langue Française. Par M. ROUXEL. Le Chemin de Fer Transsibérien. Par M. LE DR. MEYNERS D'ESTREY. La Circulation Métallique et Fiduciaire aux États-Unis. Par M. G. FRANÇOIS. September. Renouvellement du Privilège de la Banque de France (suite et fin). Par M. ALPH. COURTOIS. La Doctrine du Droit Naturel (suite et fin). Par M. COURCELLESENEUIL. [See August number.] Aphorismes Économiques et Moraux. Par M. MAURICE BLOCK. Revue de l'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (1891). Par M. J. LEFORT. Les Progrès du Papier-Monnaie. Par M. E. FOURNIER DE FLAIX. La Leçon à tirer du Concordat de l'Uruguay. Par M. A. RAFFALO VITCH. Portugal is the state most likely to follow in the footsteps of the Argentine Republic and of Uruguay, unless her statesmen cease to squander her assets and resources in special loans and, facing the situation, come to some equitable agreement with her creditors. The Uruguay crisis shows that, when a state is in pecuniary embarrassment, it can always find financiers to lend and capitalists to subscribe. In this instance the former showed a contempt of good financial administration equalled only by the ignorance and frivolity of the public, who, confiding blindly in the prestige of certain houses, might at least have taken timely alarm at a rising rate of interest, which not even the international competition between lenders could prevent. October. Les Travaux Parlementaires de la Chambre des Députés (1890-91). Par L'Instruction Indigène dans l'Inde Anglaise. Par M. DANIEL BELLET. SCHELLE. Par M. G. Shows by a number of illustrations that taxation is a game in the dark, where equitable distribution is more or less unattainable. Changes in taxation are a mulcting Paul for what Peter paid, while Jack all the while has usually been paying for both. Moral: Restriction of State functions. Ears to hear: none. Revue des Principales Publications Economiques de l'Etranger. Par M. MAURICE BLOCK. L'Augmentation de l'Emission et de l'Encaisse à la Banque d'Angleterre. Par M. G. FRANÇOIS. La crise de Baring once more suggests preventive measures. Mr. Moxon's plan of securing greater elasticity of issue than the Bank Act allows, by adopting the system obtaining in the Bank of Germany is commended. With respect to the amount of reserve, more chance of a stable rate of interest-as compared with what bimetallism, or £1 bank notes, or increased reserves in banks of deposit would afford-is offered by an international agreement for a clearing in gold between the Banks of England, France, and Germany, like that obtaining between the Banks of Norway, Sweden, and Copenhagen, differences in monetary systems presenting no serious obstacle. Enquête Décennale sur les Institutions d'Utilité Publique de la HauteAlsace. Par M. ARTHUR RAFFALOVITCH. Analysis of the report issued in 1889 by the fourth commission of inquiry made by the Industrial Society of Mülhausen into private institutions for ameliorating the material and moral condition of the population of Upper Alsace. (The Society itself was founded in 1832 to develop technical instruction, encourage inventions, maintain the reputation of Mülhausen manufactures, and to strengthen the ties of good will between employers and employed.) Summarized results from several workmen's budgets are given. Compared with 1878, fifty per cent. less is now devoted to lodgings, ten per cent. more to food. Wages have risen. Thrift and insurance increase, but so does overcrowding to economize in rent. One commissioner deplores the new Imperial restrictions on child-labour. La Constitution Violée par ses Protecteurs. Par M. E. MARTINEAU. Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik. Die Ergebnisse der Konkursstatistik. (Schluss.) Von A. WIRMINGHAUS. The answer to the riddle of the average rate of profit,' i.e. to the second of the two paradoxes in Marx's theory of surplus value, was promised six years ago by Fr. Engels when Book III. of Capital should be published. Book III. remains in MS. (No. 4.) Die Bedeutung der Lehre vom Grenznutzen. Von SIMON N. PATTEN. Comments on I. the new phase in the theory of marginal value introduced by the attacks of Professor Dietzel; II. The development of the classical theory of the cost of production; III. The law of cost; IV. Influence of consumption on the value of commodities; V. Doctrines which obscure the relations between cost and value; VI. Import of an increase in the margin of consumption in a progressive society; VII. Distribution of the store of commodities (Güterreichtum). The theory of marginal value is the legitimate successor of the Ricardian theory of rent. Not the only theory subjectively based, nor the most important among these, it affords a connecting link when they are applied to external nature. We must become as intimate with the laws of consumption as we are with those of production. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft (Tübingen) 1891. No. 3. Karl der Grosse als Volkswirt. Von Dr. FRANZ ILWOF. Die wirtschaftliche Erschiessung der im Deutschen Reiche belegenen Moorflächen. Von AUGUST PFLUG. Die Zukunft des Goldes und die Süss'che Theorie. The theory of the geologist Edward Süss, that the supply of gold is destined to decline, is controverted. Die Goldfelder Südafrikas. Von GEORG HEIM. A review of the different gold-fields in South Africa affords a fair prospect of production. No. 4. Zur rechtsphilosophischen Theorie des Ausnahmerechtes. Von SCHAFFLE. An inquiry from the standpoint of jurisprudential philosophy into the meaning and raison d'être of special or exceptional legislation, in its wider connotation equivalent to jus singulare, in its narrower, limited to restrictive, or coercive legislation. From the writer's point of view the now relaxed laws against Socialists and the May-laws ' were unjustifiable. Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung (Leipzig) 1891. Die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Unternehmung (continued). Von W. Stanley Jevons und seine Bedeutung für die Theorie der Volkswirtschaftslehre in England. Von W. BOEHMERT. Die Arbeiterverhältnisse in den preussischen Staatsforsten. Von M. WAGNER. Die Rentenhypothek. Von D. KLEMM. Finanzbücher. 8 Jahrgang. 1stes Band. Die Englische Rentenschuld und die letzte Konversion. Von SANGER. Discusses Mr. Goschen's conversion measure as the natural result of the history of the English debt. Die Reform der Gebäudegrundsteuer in Frankreich. Von HECKEL. Gives a full account of the recent separation of the French housetax from the land-tax proper, and its change from an 'apportioned into a percentage' tax. Ueber die Besteuerung der Lebensversicherung angelegten Gelder. Von STÜSSI. Giornale degli Economisti (Roma) 1891. September. I. La situazione del mercato monetario. (X.) II. La psiche bianca e la psiche negra. (***) III. Lasciate fare, lasciate passare. V. Pareto. IV. Punto di vista: a proposito dell' "Economia politica in opposizione alla teoria generale dell' evoluzione." A. J. de Johannis. V. Corrispondenza: Lettera del Senatore F. Ferrara. VI. Rivista del Credito popolare. E. Levi. October. I. La situazione del mercato monetario. (X.) II. L'Economia politica nella Spagna, nel Portogallo, nel Belgio e nei Paesi bassi. L. Cossa. III. Banche, banchieri e usurai nelle commedie di Plauto. S. Cognetti de Martiis. IV. La scuola del metodo storico e l'evoluzionismo. G. B. Salvioni. V. Nota: Ancora a proposito della teoria del baratto. F. Y. Edgeworth. VI. Previdenza. C. Bottoni. FOUR articles on Political Economy in Opposition to the General Theory of Evolution,' written from Venice for the Giornale degli Economisti (June, July, Aug., Sept., 1891), have attracted much attention in Italy, partly from their literary power, and partly because anonymous, the writer signing himself only with three asterisks. His articles profess to be a commentary on an Inaugural Lecture of Professor Messedaglia's, but the real objects of his attack are Professor Boccardo and Professor Cognetti de Martiis. Against them he contends that men differ from animals, not only in degree, but in kind; there is a 'hiatus' between human psychology and all others; hence political economy is distinctively human; men alone have unlimited and progressive wants (whence the phenomenon of value); man alone produces with set purpose and calculation; he alone has free choice; he alone can anticipate the future, and change the struggle for existence into the struggle for enjoyment. On the contrary assumptions Political Economy is impossible. The writer also insists on the existence of a hiatus between matter and living creatures, and on the complete absence of any hiatus between one race of men and another (the black Psyche is as the white Psyche-see Sept. article, p. 215). His unsparing polemic is directed against modern biologists, sociologists, and physicists, though his illustrations are chiefly biological. These articles have called out a temperate reply from Dr. A. J. de Johannis (Sept.), who, like Cromwell, beseeches his opponent to believe it possible that he may be mistaken, and deplores dogmatism on matters too hard as yet for human solution even if allowed relevant to the issues. He asks if il Signor Tre Stelle' wants to create a Political Economy that is to be 'natural' in an 18th century sense (p. 239). Dr. Salvioni also offers a reply (October). He points out that the Historical School consists of more than one group, and is by no means necessarily identified with the evolution theory in the sense in which Tre Stelle' opposes it. It will be curious to see whether the Editors of the Giornale have really fertilized Political Economy in Italy by allowing their contributors to dig at the roots of it in this manner. |