Every person has individual wants and collectivistic wants; i.e. he has wants which come to him as a human being simply and would persist if he were an isolated individual, and he has wants which grow out of his association with others. None of the latter can be satisfied without some kind of organization; and in this system he must give something to others as well as receive from them. Many of them can be satisfied only through the highest type of organization, the state; and to the state also he must give something in order to secure this satisfaction. Individual and collectivistic wants must be co-ordinated within each private economy with relation to its stock of goods.

The final utility of every satisfaction for particular wants will vary with every economy; so that the value of a state service will be very different to different people, varying notably with the stock of goods in their possession. The state may, therefore, for a given service take very different sums from different private economies, because the final utility of the service varies with the amount of goods.

This theory justifies, therefore, not merely so-called proportional taxation but also progressive taxation, and gives an economic basis for it. The author analyzes the phenomena and comes to the conclusion that no person should contribute to the satisfaction of the collective wants, i.e. pay taxes, until his goods exceed the absolute minimum necessary to physical existence. From that point on he can give an increasing proportion of his goods, up to a certain point where the final utility of further state services begins to grow smaller. When this latter point is reached, there is no further economic basis for a further increase of the rate. From a similar analysis he deduces the propriety of taxing at different rates individuals of the same property but with unequal claims upon them. "The problem of taxation is to take from the private economies for collective wants quantities of goods which shall be so measured that every person, according to the actual condition of the individual values within his possession, shall estimate the goods taken from him as high as others do the goods taken from them" (page 514).

The author then takes up some of the more special questions. He thinks that taxation is only reasonable as a system of different kinds of taxes (page 541). This follows directly from his theory. It is a justification, therefore, to a certain extent of the existing methods of taxation. The single-tax theory is not only unsatisfactory from a practical point of view but is a violation of fundamental economic doctrines. The only method of securing fairly perfect taxation lies in developing a complicated system of many different kinds of taxes, so arranged that one will supplement the other. Complication, not simplicity, is the characteristic of a good system of taxes. A few paragraphs are added upon the distinction between direct and indirect, special and general taxes,

etc. In his treatment of these subjects the author does not differ very widely from Schäffle.

Professor Sax's work pretends to be nothing else than a theoretical investigation. As such, it must be admitted, I think, that he has made a substantial contribution to the subject. He emphasizes an aspect of the topic which must attract more and more attention until a satisfactory solution of its problems shall be found; and he is the first to give us a purely economic basis of taxation and a purely economic rule for the distribution of taxation. Not "equality of sacrifice" but "equality of values taken" must underlie all reasonable systems of taxation.

EDMUND J. JAMES.

Grundlagen der Volkswirthschaftslehre. Von FRIEDRICH JULIUS NEUMANN. Tübingen, H. Laupp, 1889.

In opening this book the reader will be struck by the contrast between dedication and preface. The dedication is to Roscher, and indicates that the author was trained in Roscher's methods; but in the first sentence of the preface the deductive bent of Professor Neumann's mind is clearly revealed. There is, however, great strength in this union of opposing points of view; and from thinkers like Professor Neumann, who are deductive by instinct but historical by education, there is a good prospect that the differences between the old and new political economy will be finally set aside.

When, however, I examine the contents of this book, and seek to estimate the success of Professor Neumann's efforts, I find myself at a serious disadvantage. After the usual German custom, the book is given to the public in parts, and only one of the three proposed parts is yet in print. This part is mainly devoted to definitions and to the fundamental concepts of the science. The second part will treat of the objects of political economy, the nature of its laws and the theory of value and price. The third part will develop the laws of production and the shares in distribution. Here is an attractive programme, and one of especial present interest, because many of the doctrines which Professor Neumann proposes to emphasize have not been adequately treated by the historical school of economists. In the theory of distribution and value most of the historical school seem to be Ricardians at heart. If Professor Neumann can develop a broader point of view one more in harmony with the conception of economic science which German thinkers have long striven to realize he will do a signal service.

It is, as I have said, difficult to judge of the part now at hand, because the utility of economic definitions depends upon the use made of them

in the discussion of economic doctrine. Definitions and concepts must be judged solely by the light they throw upon the phenomena they are meant to explain. From this point of view I cannot wholly agree with the method used by Professor Neumann. He decides the meaning of terms rather by the weight of authority than by their capacity to express clearly new ideas of vital importance to the progress of economic theory. His method seems to be due to the influence of his historical education; yet if there is any field where purely deductive methods are in place, it is in dealing with concepts and definitions. When practical policies are under consideration, the only hope of a solution rests in a conciliation of opposing views. But a conciliation of two opposing theories of value is not possible. One and only one will explain the phenomena; and it in the end must displace the other, no matter how much the weight of authority or of past usage may be against it.

SIMON N. PATTEN.

Zur Theorie des Preises, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der geschichtlichen Entwickelung der Lehre. Von Dr. ROBERT ZUCKERKANDL, Privatdocent an der Universität Wien. Leipzig, Verlag von Duncker & Humblot, 1889.-8vo, x, 384 pp.

He must write rapidly who would record as they appear the valuable works of the Austrian economists. Dr. Zuckerkandl has given us a critical history and somewhat more. He has traced the evolution of the theory of price for the sake of attaining a point of view from which to examine the theory itself. He has an introductory word on methods of study: deduction is legitimate when its basis is sufficiently broad and real, and the abuse that brings the entire method into disrepute consists in founding a scientific system on assumptions that are too limited to correspond with the facts of life, and in giving to conclusions thus obtained an application that is nearly universal. No price theory can be broad enough to cover all cases; conclusions reached by the best of methods will not be universal.

The author gives some space to a study of nomenclature, and, with one qualification, agrees with that of Professor Menger. He traces the divergence of past theories from the right path to the fact that writers have started with the idea that values are governed, not by relations between men and commodities, but by outward facts such as changes of supply. This bias has led to "mechanical" theories, which fall into three classes according as they base the adjustment of prices on demand and supply, on cost of production, or on labor. Dr. Zuckerkandl traces first, however, the evolution of the "subjective" theories of value, or those which are founded on relations between men and commodities. He

shows the value of Turgot's analysis, and the loss suffered by later writers from a failure to follow in the line that he marked out, and points out the great advance made by Professor Jevons. The growth of the subjective theory in Germany he traces through a series of writers including Rau, Schäffle, Roscher, Hildebrand and Knies, and ending with Menger, von Wieser, von Böhm, Sax and Neumann. He then describes at length the development of the mechanical theories, and ends with a special study of the subjective theory itself in its latest and best form. Aside from its independent value the book constitutes an especially good introduction to the writings of recent economists of the Austrian school. J. B. CLARK.

Dritter Theil :

Finanzwissenschaft. Von ADOLF WAGNER. Specielle Steuerlehre. - Uebersicht der Steuergeschichte wichtigerer Staaten und Zeitalter bis Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts. — Die Besteuerung des 19. Jahrhunderts. Einleitung: Britische und französische Besteuerung. Leipzig, Winter'sche Verlagshandlung, 1889. — 8vo, xxxi, 916 pp.

System der Finanzwissenschaft. Ein Lesebuch für Studierende. Von GUSTAV COHN, ord. Prof. der Staatswissenchaften an der Universität Göttingen. Stuttgart, Ferdinand Enke, 1889. 8vo, x, 804 pp. The almost simultaneous appearance of these two works is an indication of the active interest taken by German students in the science of finance. An adequate presentation and comparison of the views contained in these latest additions to fiscal literature would require a separate article of many pages. It will be possible in this notice only to touch lightly on some of the more fundamental points.

The first volumes of Professor Wagner's Finanzwissenschaft are familiar to all students. Wagner is an acute original thinker, who started out almost two decades ago with the idea of publishing a new edition of Rau's finance, but who soon found his differences to be so great as to call for a new creation, rather than a new edition. The first two volumes of the work appeared years ago - the second in 1880. The third volume which has just been completed deals not with general theory, but with special questions in the history and practice of taxation. Unfortunately Wagner's plan was so comprehensive, his method so confusing and involving so much repetition, as always to make the ultimate completion of the work very doubtful. In fact, as the work progressed, Wagner entered into continually greater details which would have been in place only in a cyclopædia. The consequence is that it has taken him ten years to write volume three, and that he has been able to discuss the present condition of French and English taxation only.

Wagner himself has become tired of this minute method of proceeding and tells us now that he has practically abandoned the intention of completing the work. This is all the more to be regretted because the systems of France and England have already been made familiar to us by other good publications, while the condition of the other countries is far from being equally well known. Wagner shrinks from the labor necessary to write such a fourth volume; but he has himself to blame for being compelled to leave his work a torso. This new volume requires no especial commentary beyond the statement that in all his minute details of the history and practice of taxation, as well as in his general summaries of the French and English systems, he remains true to the ideas advanced in his former volumes. He has continually in mind the demands of what he calls the socio-political principles, the principles whereby the government is looked up to as the regulator of the distribution of wealth and taxation is regarded as a mere engine to redress the existing inequalities of fortune. Much as we may dissent from the fundamental points of Wagner's general financial position, it must be recognized by all that he has developed his doctrines with consummate keenness and phenomenal learning, and that his science of finance, even though a torso, still stands at the head of financial literature for the suggestiveness of its views and the wealth of its contents. Wagner's pre-eminence, however, is likely to be seriously threatened by the appearance of Professor Cohn's Finanzwissenschaft. book is constructed on an entirely different method. It forms the second volume of the general System of Political Economy, the opening volume of which was noticed in the POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, volume i, page 143, and which created a considerable stir throughout the scientific world. After a general introduction on the nature and history of the science of finance the first book treats of the essence of government economy or of the public household. It deals with public functions, public expenditures, the history and development of public revenue, and the budget. The second book discusses the principles, history and actual systems of taxation. The third book is devoted to a presentation of German taxation. Finally a fourth book treats of public credit.

The chief interest of the work lies in the first book and in the first chapter of the second book. The remainder of the volume is always interesting, as are all of Cohn's writings, but it contains nothing that can be called a signal contribution to financial science. He is indeed, through his intimate acquaintance with Swiss financial methods, often enabled to illustrate certain principles more successfully than any of his predecessors, but in the main he follows the rather conservative lines of accepted views. The book on German taxation gives an excellent