NATURE 



457 



THURSDAY, MARCH i8, iS86 



A TEXT-BOOK OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 

 A Btief Text-Book of Political Economy. By Francis 



A. Walker. Pp. iv. -415. (London: Macmillan and 



Co., 1885.) 

 pROFESSOR WALKER'S "Text-Book," for the most 

 part an abridgment of the larger work published in 

 1883, deserves to be received with the highest commenda- 

 tion as supplying a much-felt want in English literature 

 of the subject. An introductory treatment of so complex 

 a study as political economy, written with due insight 

 into the theoretical difficulties of the subject, and at the 

 same time with adequate notice of the practical problems 

 which these involve, can hardly be said to be given in 

 any of the smaller manuals in current use in this country. 

 The praiseworthy work of the late Prof. Fawcett, with its 

 condensation by Mrs. Fawcett, kept on the whole too 

 rigidly to the lines prescribed by Mill's classical treatise, 

 and remained unaffected by many discussions which 

 had shown the need of altering or amending the cardinal 

 doctrines so forcibly stated by Mill. There is hardly any 

 portion of the theory of political economy which has not 

 received attention since the date of Mill's exposition, 

 while the pressure of new practical problems has of itself 

 been sufficient to render necessary some revision of the 

 general theory. Prof. Walker, while retaining on the 

 whole Mill's general conception of the limits and divisions 

 of economical science, has incorporated many results of 

 recent research, and has in addition so keen an eye for 

 practical issues that his exposition, even when remaining 

 within the lines of the older doctrine, gains peculiar 

 freshness and interest. 



Of the six parts into which the work is divided, the first 

 contains a brief statement, mainly based on Cairnes, of 

 the character and logical method of Political Economy. 

 Parts IL, IIL, IV., on Production, Exchange, and Distri- 

 bution, contain an admirable rhtime of the current 

 doctrine, with certain important modifications. As 

 excellent specimens of the way in which the author's 

 keen appreciation of practical conditions enables him to 

 state economical principles in a novel and forcible 

 manner, I would instance the chapters on labour and 

 productive capacity (Part II., Chapters 2 and 4\ that on 

 the reaction of exchange upon production (Part III. 

 Chapter 7), and the treatment of market prices. Opinions 

 must differ in regard to what should be included for 

 purposes of elementary instruction under the three staple 

 heads of production, exchange, and distribution, as also 

 in regard to the most suitable order of treatment. Gener- 

 ally Mr. Walker's choice is wise, and his exposition clear 

 of the more thorny theoretical difficulties. It appears to 

 me, however, that much greater expansion might have 

 been given to the section which follows out division of 

 labour into its concrete form — the specialisation of in- 

 dustries, employments, and localities, and in particular 

 the separation of industrial functions. Without a descrip- 

 tive basis of some such kind, the student finds far too 

 wide a gap between his hypothetically deduced theory of 

 exchange and distribution and the facts of practical life. 

 More might with advantage have been said on the way in 

 Vol. XXXIII.— No. 855 



which this social development affects competition, and 

 so some more concrete view of capital obtained than is 

 contained in the chapter on that subject. Justice is barely 

 donetothe theoretical notions involvedinthedetermination 

 of normal value, and I think that most useful illustrations 

 of a quite elementary kind are to be had from the treat- 

 ment of local and temporary variations of price, and of 

 cost of transporter circulation. I am unable to persuade 

 myself that the treatment of seignorage, on which Prof. 

 Walker lays unusual stress, is the best or even a good 

 introduction to the discussion of inconvertible paper 

 money, and generally the sections on money seem to me 

 to leave much to be desired. Possibly the problem of 

 the determination and the variation of general prices is 

 too hard for an introductory treatise, but, if it be omitted, 

 unusual caution is required in laying down abstract 

 propositions regarding demand and supply of money. I 

 do not know how Prof. Walker, usually very careful in 

 his use of terms, will reconcile the statements about 

 "inflation " in §§ 164 and 186. On certain points in the 

 treatment of distribution a remark will later be made. 



In Part V. a very interesting and instructive treatment 

 is given of some portions of the theory of Consumption. 

 Prof. Walker seems to me justified in all he says of the 

 importance of this part of the subject. But it has 

 peculiar difficulties, and tends to bring before one rather 

 forcibly the often-recurring doubts as to the economical 

 statics which have preceded it. Perhaps political economy 

 is hardly yet in a position to take the important step of 

 regarding its statics as but a special case of the more 

 general, more important, but less easily formulated 

 dynamical principles. 



Part VI. — "Some Applications of Economic Principles" 

 — contains interesting but, on the whole, over-brief treat- 

 ments of some mixed problems of economics and politics, 

 ranging from usury laws to prutection. So far as the 

 book is designed for students beginning the subject, 

 nearly the whole of this part might with advantage have 

 been omitted ; it does not seem possible to deal satis- 

 factorily in the compass of a few pages with such 

 involved problems as bi-metallism, progressive taxation, 

 and jjrotection. 



The treatment of distribution is the portion of Prof. 

 Walker's work in which he deviates most widely from the 

 current doctrine as laid down in Mill's treatise,- in which 

 he tends more towards the view of certain French and 

 German economists. The tendency seems to me to be in 

 the right direction, but not to have been allowed sufificient 

 development, and although I attach high value to this 

 portion of Mr. Walker's work, both in its abridged and 

 its laro-er form, I cannot think that he has been entirely 

 successful in threadmg the labyrinth of distribution. It 

 is in the province of distribution that the abstrac- 

 tion by the aid of which the economist proceeds to 

 develop his theorems becomes at once most necessary 

 and most dangerous — most necessary, for there is ab- 

 solutelv no single fixed significance attached to the 

 fundamental terms employed ; most dangerous, because 

 the attempt to sever may reduce living reality to a mere 

 economical caput mortuum. In the theory of production 

 it is comparatively easy to form the schema or general 

 picture of the elements, their relations and movements, 

 which constitute the fact to be analysed ; nothing is 



