THE PARALYSIS OF TRADE By Percy G. Donald
This is one of those books (Allen and Unwin, 7s. 6c1.) which make one wonder what on earth the publisher was thinking of. It contains a howler, of fact or of logic, on an average every half-dozen pages. The author is apparently under the im- pression that it is impossible to do a simple sum in addition correctly when working with Roman numerals, that factories pay full rates, that " orthodox " economists favour restriction schemes, that civil servants get their incomes tax-free. He develops an ingenious scheme of internal and external cur- rencies without once mentioning the possibility of variations in relative price levels. He reverts to Adam Smith to dis- tinguish between productive and unproductive workers. It is symptomatic that when he quotes a technical term of theoretical economics he generally gets it just slightly wrong; and that his bibliography, which includes Mr. McNair Wilson, Mr. Eimar O'Duffy, Professor Soddy and Major Douglas, omits Mr. J. M. Keynes—to say nothing of other economists whose writings might be supposed of some importance although perhaps less congenial. Scattered in this mass of chaff there are kernels of common sense. Mr. Donald's long practical experience does count for something. While he is often silly, he is never dull. But there is really no reason why anyone, except perhaps students of economics anxious to try their grasp of elementary principles upon a not too repellent dogsbody, should trouble to read him.
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