SOME RECENT ECONOMIC LITERATURE.* IN his work on Statistics and
Economics Professor Mayo-Smith shows in a high degree the faculty of American economists of supporting their economic theories by the clear use of figures and practical restate. No one who is interested in such questions as the increasing importance of capital in modern industrial organisation, and the essential unity of interests between Capital and Labour, the position of Labour, the chances of agriculture in old countries, or the question of the burden of taxation, perhaps the fundamental question of economics, could hope to find a more adequate account of the assistance to be derived from the use of the statistics avail- able than in this book. Under each of the usual headings, "Consumption," "Production," "Exchange," and " Distribu- tion," he will find sets of statistics illustrating the theory, with a criticism telling the reader how far they can be relied on to support the conclusions. As regards finance statistics, for instance, he says :—" The science of finance deals with many important questions concerning the best methods of raising revenue, the economic effects of different taxes and expenditures, the incidence of taxation, its social expediency, and deep considerations of justice and equity. Our crude statistics do not carry us very far in solving these
• (1.) Statistics and Economics. By Richmond Mayo-Smith, Professor of Political Economy in Columbia University. London : Macmillan and Co. [12s. 6d. net.] —(2.) The Science of Finance: an Investigation of Public Expenditures and Public Recenues. By Henry Carter Adams, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Michigan. New York: Henry Holt and Co.—(3.) The Distribution of Income. By William Smart, Adam Smith Professor in the University of Glasgow. London : Macmillan and Co. (56. net.]—(4.) The Ecoiwinic Writings of Sir William Petty. Edited by Charles Henry Hull, Ph.D., Cornell University. 2 vols. Cambridge: University Press. (25.]—(5.) Researches 471 the History of Economics. By Ernest Nys, Professor of the University of Brussels. Translated by N. F. and A. R. Dryhurst. London : A. and C. Black. (6s]—(6.) 4 History of the English Poor Law from 1834 to the Peesent Time. Vol. IIL Supplementary to the History by Sir George Nicholls, K.C.B. By Thomas Mackay. London : P. S. King and Son. (21‘.]—(7.) The Case for 1,,,a4c140h. By Ernest Edwin Williams. London : Grant Richards. [5s.]
problems," but the author goes on to show that they bring out at least some important facts,—viz., the great increase of Governmental expenditures during the nineteenth century and the directions it has taken, and the immense increase of public debts, balanced, however, in many cases by increase of national wealth. The book is a most valuable condensation of the present condition both of thought and knowledge on the most vital problems of society, but it does not propound new theories nor pronounce in too decided a fashion on the conclusions established by other economists.
Another American work, that of Professor Adams on The Science of Finance, is written mainly from the point of view of public expenditure and revenues within the United States. It contains, however, a, mass of original thinking on all ques- tions of taxation. The treatment of incidence problems is particularly lucid, but the criticism of the Income-tax will specially interest English readers. Mr. Adams is unable to approve of the tendency to rely more and more on a general Income-tax for taxation; and he puts his finger on the theoretical fault of such a tax when he maintains that it can never be a just tax because "income is not industrially homo- geneous." He would confine it, therefore, to incomes accruing on account of personal service, and, following his principle of attacking each and every income by some one form of taxa- tion, he would add to this the Inheritance-tax as a tax on income from property, a Land-tax, and, finally and principally, a series of carefully designed business taxes, which would include a tax on the income of public companies or corpora- tions, and Excise and Customs taxes according to fiscal needs. The whole speculation suggested is interesting and ingenious.
Professor William Smart's analysis of The Distribution of Income leads up to the question, Is it a bad distribution P And the answer he gives is important as being the outcome, not of prejudice in favour of the existing social organisation but of thoughtful and scientific inquiry into the methods of the present distribution. He gives his opinion, "as probably the most responsible act of an economist's life," that this distribution is not arbitrary, much less chaotic ; and that, as a distribution according to service, " there is enough of rough justice in it to make even those of us who feel its imperfec- tions most keenly think twice before we give our countenance to any rival scheme which has yet been proposed." Mr Smart estimates the national money income of the country, probably on the basis of former estimates, at about £1,500,000,000.
The two next books on our list are of a historical character. Mr. Hull has edited, with a critical introduction, the economic writings of Sir William Petty, who in his Political Arithm,etick was perhaps the founder of the statistical method of treating political questions. As he himself said, "The method I have taken is not yet very usual, for instead of using only comparative and superlative words, and intel- lectual arguments, I have taken the course to express myself in terms of number, weight, or measure." Petty's writings are full of vigour and sense, and they were always addressed to some practical object. Of a different character is the brilliant work, Researches in the History of Economics, very adequately translated by Mr. Dryhurat, in which Pro- fessor Nye has traced the economic development of Europe down to the middle of the seventeenth century ; but we must turn from it to give a few words to a book which ought to play some part in the discussion sure, if any domestic topic can attract attention, to arise in connection with the old-age pen- sion schemes of the Government. A History of the English Poor Law from 1884 to the Present Time, by Mr. Taomas Mackay, is the work of a man most fully qualified both by grasp of economic principle and by practical experience. Whether he is writing on the theory of the Poor-law, or the effect of Poor-law relief upon wages, or whether he is describing the actual position of the problem of dis. paoperisation, the reader feels that he is in the hands of a clear thinker, orthodox but open-minded, who is at the same time master of his facts. The chapter on the incidence of the rates and local taxation well brings out the anomaly in the existing system of a partly national rate combined with local administration, and points to the probability of the next change being one of centralisation of administration, as well as of finance. At present "about one-fourth of the charge of maintaining the poor falls on the Imperial Exchequer, but local administration still continues.
The main burden still falls, more especially in towns, on a prime necessity of life, namely house-room, and in the country on the raw material of agricultural industry The incidence of the tax in every direction is such that, in the interest of the poor, it ought to be most economically administered. The influence of Imperial subsidies has been precisely the contrary." Probably every one whoifollows the conclusions of this eminently sane writer will approach the consideration of the question of old-age pensions with anything but a light heart. If Parliament should be induced to em- bark on some ill-thought-out scheme of pensions at a moment when the resources of the country are about to be greatly taxed by foreign war, then indeed will the policy of "Free Exchange," of which Mr. Mackay is one of the leading ad- herents, be exposed to a danger compared to which Mr. Williams's assaults in The Case for Protection are of very trifling importance. For it cannot be too often pointed out that a country which is increasing its taxation by leaps and bounds cannot long enjoy the benefits of Free-trade.
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