ON ECONOMIC TRAINING IX THIS AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 367 



cula, unless counteracted by the existence of a very powerful popular 

 sentiment in its favour, practically removes it from tlie reach of students 

 who have to make themselves ready to earn their living. Of the two 

 influences, described above, the former, or the actual and positive recog- 

 nition, is given, in some shape or other, in Austria and Hungary, tlie 

 southern states of the German Empire, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, 

 Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, and Holland. In 

 America, and to some extent in Canada, popular sentiment and interest 

 supply the needful impetus by making Economics a tacit requisite for 

 those exercising particular callings. In both Germany and Austria there 

 are signs of the growth of Economics in popular appreciation. In Austria, 

 indeed, the circumstances are peculiarly fortunate. Economic instruction 

 is recognised as a matter of serious importance, while, on the other hand, 

 economic knowledge is one of the subjects of the State examinations for 

 the legal and administrative service. In addition, its careful and scientifi.^^ 

 study is pursued by a fair number of advanced students. In this way 

 Austria occupies a central position among the various nations which range 

 themselves with America at one extreme, where there is no positive or 

 direct obligation in favour of economic study, and at the other extreme, 

 the Scandinavian and lesser Latin countries, where all recognition that 

 exists is positive, but where this positive recognition is largely nominal. 



It has been urged that the ill-success of economic studies in these 

 latter countries is largely an argument against their inclusion in obligatory 

 curricula — a proposition which probably those who make it would hardly 

 apply to the cases of other subjects. But from the evidence fui-nished by 

 the countries before us this ill-success can be traced to other causes. It 

 is due, firstly, to differences in the methods of study, and, secondly, to 

 the differences in the thing made obligatory. In South Germany, Austria, 

 and Hungai'y, Economics is obligatory on certain classes of students, and 

 the study of Economics is making rapid and satisfactory progress ; but 

 then in South Germany, Austria, and Hungary, the method of study is 

 one which commends itself to advanced students and educational critics, 

 and the knowledge required in the examinations is thorough. In the 

 lesser Latin countries, as Spain and Italy, the knowledge which the 

 candidate is expected to show is elementary in itself, largely confined to 

 elementary theory, and a marked unreality is imparted to the whole 

 study, an unreality recognised alike by examiners, teachers, and students. 

 On the other hand, the advantages which Economics may receive from its 

 public and positive recognition are borne witness to by those best 

 acquainted with the condition of the study in Germany, where the usages 

 of the north and south differ. Broadly speaking, they consist in the 

 removal of Economics from the category of unnecessary to the category of 

 necessary acquirements. Many of those who begin the study from com- 

 pulsion continue it from choice. In America, indeed, the strength of 

 popular sentiment and the ever-present interest of politics together with 

 the action of the universities, where nearly all studies, and not Economics 

 alone, are put on a voluntary footing, give it an adequate position ; but 

 failing the combination of conditions such as these, its absence, both from 

 all professional curricula and from the earlier stages of education, cannot 

 but be regarded as disastrous and unjust. 



(2) The method of economic studies is of a certain importance with 

 regard to the subject last discussed. Though it would be unfair to 

 estimate the work, or to judge of the scope of schools of economic teaching 



