NATURE 



97 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1? 



POLITICAL ECONOMY 

 Guide to the Study of Political Economy. By Dr. Luigi 

 Cossa, Professor of Political Economy in the Univer- 

 sity of Pavia. Translated from the second Italian 

 edition. With a Preface by W. Stanley Jevon?, F.R.S. 

 (London : Macmillan and Co., 1880.) 

 '"T'HE translator of Prof. Cossa's " Guide '' has conferred 

 J- a great boon upon the English student of political eco- 

 nomy. The present condition of economic science gene- 

 rally, and especially in this country, cannot be regarded as 

 satisfactory. The doctrines once regarded as firmly esta- 

 blished, and the limits of discussion apparently viewed as 

 fixed by the nature of the facts, have been subjected to 

 criticism from the most varied grounds, and the process 

 of disintegration, not yet completed, has not led to any 

 general agreement with respect to the scope and prin- 

 ciples of the science. The system of political economy, 

 which with some justice we designate as the English, 

 has been revised or attacked on two grounds mainly. In 

 the first place, the fundamental notions upon which it 

 proceeded have been criticised as too narrow and 

 limited, as referring solely to one economic condition 

 and as leading to results of an abstract and isolated 

 character. The "Economic Studies" of the late Mr. 

 Bagehot represent fairly this phase of opinion, while the 

 excellent little compendium by Prof, and Mrs. Marshall, 

 the "Economics of Industry," is a specimen of the mode 

 in which the older theorems require to be restated in the 

 light of more general principles. In the second place, 

 the great advance in what we may call social science, and 

 the application of the historic method to the study of the 

 various orders of social facts, have led, on the part of 

 many modern writers, to an almost total rejection of the 

 whole system of doctrines grouped together under the 

 title of Political Economy. The fundamental principles, 

 the methods of reasoning from them, and the conclusions 

 arrived at, have all been questioned, while a perfectly 

 chaotic state of opinion appears to exist regarding the 

 nature and method of that which is to take the place 

 of the formerly accepted doctrine. 



The present work supplies most timely aid in the dis- 

 cussion of these complicated problems. The first part 

 (pp. 1-84), which treats in a thoughtful and judicious 

 manner the province of political economy, its method 

 and its bearing upon social facts generally, brings into 

 due prominence the immense extent and variety of the 

 inquiries which, in an unsystematic fashion, have come to 

 be included in one body of doctrine, and fairly warrants 

 the conclusion that in future we must regard political 

 economy as a complex of different sciences, with distinct 

 aims and requiring distinct methods of treatment. The 

 second part (pp. 85-227), containing a brief sketch of the 

 history of the science, which we may without hesitation 

 pronounce as unrivalled of its kind, leads by another 

 path to the same result. The English student will learn 

 from this history of the development of the science 

 more especially from the admirable account of recent 

 German and Italian works, the nature of the various 

 general principles which have been accepted as furnishing 

 Vol. XXIII. — No. 579 



the foundation of economics and its allied branches, and 

 will be enabled to discover in what respects mainly the 

 peculiar doctrines of the older system require revision 

 and amendment. 



Prof. Cossa would doubtless be the first to admit that 

 the brief treatment here given of so complex a problem 

 as the determination of the province and logical cha- 

 racter of political economy cannot be expected to furnish 

 a final solution. His remarks on the essential nature of 

 pure or theoretical political economy, which he regards 

 as the science of the social laws of wealth, are at least 

 instructive and helpful, while the sections on the relation 

 of economics to the various branches of legislative science 

 leave little to be desired. At the same time it may be 

 doubted whether there is really any place for the art of 

 political economy here alluded to, and it may be ques- 

 tioned whether the mode the author adopts for separating 

 economics from technology on the one hand, and from 

 economic legislation on the other, is satisfactory in itself, 

 or so clear as what we find, e.g., in Hermann and Wagner. 

 The chapter on Method in Political Economy contains 

 little more than a judicious reproduction of Cairnes' 

 well-known essay, and the remarks on the historical 

 method, though acute and sensible, do not seem to us to 

 go to the root of the matter. 



The historical sketch, the main feature of the work, 

 deserves every praise that can be given for breadth and 

 exactitude of knowledge, for fairness and acuteness of 

 criticism. Particularly valuable are the sections on the 

 Political Economy of the Greeks and Romans, and on the 

 Physiocratic school. One recognises with satisfaction 

 the cordial appreciation extended by the author to certain 

 great works of modern Continental economists which are 

 scarcely known, even by name, in this country, but which 

 must be pronounced absolutely indispensable to the 

 student. Such e.g. are v. Hermann's " Staatswirthschaft- 

 liche Untersuchungen," the first section of which is 

 certainly the best treatment of the fundamental notions of 

 pure economics, v. Mangoldt's " Volkswirthschaftslehre," 

 Knies' '' Geld und Credit," Courcelle-Seneuil's " Traitd," 

 and Cherbuliez' " Prdcis." As text-books of the subject, 

 v. Mangoldt's "Grundriss" and Cherbuliez' "Precis" 

 are unsurpassed. 



Naturally one cannot always assent to 'the critical 

 opinions expressed on detached doctrines or authors. 

 Thus it seems to us that the author ought not to have 

 included Codillac without further mention as a follower 

 of Quesnay ; that his estimate of the merits of Storch's 

 " Cours " is much too low ; that he is hardly fair to von 

 Thiinen's acute speculations on interest and wages ; and 

 that he is quite mistaken regarding the nature of v. Man- 

 goldt's theory of profit. What Prof. Cossa, in this con- 

 nection, stigmatises as "an equivocation" (p. 200) is in 

 fact a misunderstanding of his own. 



In a brief sketch covering so wide a literature as that 

 of political economy, absolute completeness is not to be 

 expected, and probably the author has good reasons for 

 omitting various names which occur to one as having a 

 place in the history of the science. Still one is surprised 

 to find a studious omission of the whole school of econo- 

 mical writers to which the vague term socialist has been 

 applied. Proudhon, we think, is mentioned once ; Fourier, 

 St. Simon, and Karl Marx are not mentioned at all. So 



