May 12, 1892] 



NA TURE 



27 



These facts are certainly opposed to the statement of 

 Hyatt that stems give off numerous forms in their early 

 youth, when the field is free, but not in old age, when 

 they begin to be crowded out by the struggle for existence. 

 Possibly, however, the opposition is more apparent than 

 real, and will disappear when the Brachiopoda shall have 

 been studied under the guidance of modern principles of 

 evolution. Such a study has begun in America, but we 

 regret to see little sign of it in the present work. No 

 doubt Mr. Bittner is only waiting to complete his know- 

 edge, before entering on a field where he will meet with 

 worse obstacles than hard rocks and battered specimens — 

 with illusion and ignorance, prejudice and envy, obstinacy 

 and superstition. When he does start, we shall be the 

 first to wish him good speed. 



F. A. Bather. 



A TEXT- BOOK OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

 Elements of Economics of Industry. Being the first 

 volume of " Elements of Economics." By Prof 

 Alfred Marshall. (London : Macmillan and Co., 1892.) 



THE nomenclature of this work reminds us of the 

 ancient custom according to which the alternate 

 generations of a family were named alike. As the son of 

 Hipponicus was called, not after Hipponicus, but after 

 Hipponicus' father, Callias ; so the " Economics of In- 

 dustry," though sprung from the " Principles of Econo- 

 mics," of which it is a miniature, yet does not derive its 

 title from that work, but from the predecessor of that work, 

 the well-known text-book which saw the light some thir- 

 teen years ago. The first and the second " Economics of 

 Industry " are unlike in form ; but a general family resem- 

 blance may be traced between the two generations. A sort 

 of reversion is presented by the circumstance that 

 trades unions are discussed in the latest as in the 

 earliest of our author's books ; but not in the intermediate 

 " Principles of Economics." The character of the 

 ''Economics of Industry "the younger, and its position 

 in the family group, may best be indicated if, comparing 

 it with its immediate predecessor, the second edition of 

 the " Principles of Economics," we notice what has been 

 retained what has been omitted, and what has been 

 added. 



The fundamental principles of political economy as 

 enounced by Prof. Marshall in his magnum opus, have 

 been transferred to the pages before us without altera- 

 tion. The conception of economics as he science 

 of measurable— not necessarily selfish— motives is 

 again the starting-point. Thence we are led to the con- 

 struction of demand-curves, and that construction by 

 which the benefit which the consumer derives from 

 fall in price is represented. Corresponding to demand- 

 curves and " consumer's rent " are, on the other side of 

 the counter, so to speak, supply- curves and rent proper. 

 But the correspondence is not close, and the diagrammatic 

 representation of the conditions of supply presents pecu- 

 liar difficulties. It is perplexed by the principles of 

 *' increasing " and " decreasing returns." Difficulty is 

 caused by the distinction— first clearly indicated by 

 Prof. Marshall— between "long periods" and "short 

 periods." An effort is required to realize the idea 

 NO. I 176, VOL. 46] 



of supply, as it were, projected through time — the 

 vast conception of skilled work put upon a future 

 labour-market by parental providence for vicarious 

 remuneration. The forces of demand and supply deter- 

 mine price, acting simultaneously, in the sense in which 

 equations are called simultaneous. "Just in the same way, 

 when several balls are lying in a bowl, they mutually 

 determine one another's position." The law of demand 

 and supply — the gravitation of the economic system — 

 governs widely distant spheres ; not only exchange in 

 the proper narrow sense, but also distribution. Prof. 

 Marshall was, we believe, the first clearly to discern this 

 identity. But, while contemplating the unity of the genus, 

 he has not lost sight of the diversity of the species. No 

 one else has so fully enumerated and allowed for what 

 may be called ih^ propria of the different markets ; such 

 as the circumstance that many of the disadvantages 

 in bargaining to which the workman is subject are 

 cumulative. It is this union of wide general views with 

 minute knowledge of concrete details which imparts 

 peculiar weight to Prof. Marshall's recommendations 

 respecting questions of practical moment, such as the 

 limitation of the hours of labour. 



These lessons have now been made easier by the 

 omission of much that is accessory and abstruse in the 

 original volume ; in particular, the literary criticisms and 

 the mathematical demonstrations. Among the latter class 

 of omissions two seem conspicuous : the difficult formula 

 for discounting future pleasure, and what may be called the 

 higher theory of the supply-curve, including its possible 

 plural intersection with the demand-curve. Difficult, the 

 present writer may well call these theories, for he has to 

 confess that he was mistaken in some strictures passed 

 upon them in a review of the first edition of the "Principles 

 of Economics" (Nature, August 14,1890). The fuller 

 statements about those subjects contained in the second 

 edition made it evident that there had occurred what 

 more frequently occurs than is acknowledged : the 

 author was right, and the critic was wrong. The little 

 incident may be referred to as justifying the plan of 

 abridgment which has been adopted — by omission rather 

 than compression of difficult demonstrations. " It 

 seemed that the difficulty of an argument would be 

 increased rather than diminished by curtailing it and 

 leaving out some of its steps." There results a text-book 

 eminently fitted for the purpose of education, embodying 

 the result of original reflections in a shape adapted to the 

 needs of beginners ; complete in itself, yet capable of 

 being supplemented by the judicious teacher who, refer- 

 ring to the " Principles of Economics," may point to that 

 higher world of thought and lead the way. 



Practical exigencies have induced Prof. Marshall to 

 forestall the discussion of trade unionism which may be 

 expected in the second volume of the " Principles of 

 Economics." In the work before us he thus states the 

 claim of unions to make economic friction act in favour 

 of the workman : — 



"A viscous fluid in a vessel tends to form a level 

 surface ; but, if from time to time an artificial force 

 pushes down the left side, which we may take to corre- 

 spond to wages, it may reasonably be maintained that the 

 average position of the left side is lower than it would 

 have been without such interference, in spite of the in- 



