Natural Value. By Friedrich von Wieser. Edited, with a Pre-
face and Analysis, by William Smart, M.A., LL.D. (Macmillan.) —We welcome Mr. Malloch's translation of Professor Wieser's essay because, whether its conclusions be accepted or not, it is a thought-compelling work, and now steady and careful thinking is what is mainly needed for the continued advance of economic science. Political economy is no longer the science of human. machines, but a real science of human life,—a truth made visible in this work, as it was also in the writings of Jevons, the best known English exponent of the same school. The Socialists' theory of value, and their claim on behalf of labour, receive atten- tion from Professor Wieser,—more attention, perhaps, than, from an economic point of view, they deserve ; for the " political economy" of modern Socialism is only a series of doctrines, arranged to support certain foregone conclusions on the rela- tions of capital and labour, and is, in no true sense, a science. The essay is somewhat too diffuse in style, and is occasionally vague in statement, and Mr. Smart's admirable analysis is a welcome aid to the reader.
Previous page
