charts are definite and clear; the author brings out the fact that of the 361 purchasers only one signed with a cross, while the other names seem to be the signatures of people who were accustomed to write. In this district the sales were local, and in many cases those who held a lease turned it into a definite possession. Consequently the purchasers had benefited from their education, and in this district at least the education must have been more thorough than is generally believed.

The actual position of the clergy at the Revolution in three districts of Ille-et-Vilaine is a study made by Armand Rebillon, under the title of La Situation économique du clergé à la veille de la Révolution (Rennes, Imprimerie Oberthur, 1913; cxxix, 780 pp., map.). The population of this region was hardly more than 200,000 and the clergy formed from 1300 to 1600 of them. It is interesting to see that in these districts the rich and ancient establishments suffered, while the poverty of other establishments made for the activity that preserved them; 129 pages of introduction are followed by 780 pages of documents, with a map and a bibliography.

Émile Bridrey publishes the third volume of the Cahiers de Doléances du Bailliage de Cotentin (Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1914; 656 pp.). The first volume appeared in 1907; as in the two earlier volumes, the footnotes are full and the mistakes in the Cahiers are carefully and exactly noted.

The first volume of a collection of Documents relatifs à l'histoire des subsistances dans le district de Bergues pendant la révolution, 1788 -An v, (Lille, Imprimerie Librairie Camille Robbe, 1914; cxxiv, charts, 670 pp.), edited by Georges Lefebvre, was published in 1914. Bergues is some twenty miles inland from Dunkirk, and the influence of the passing of the armies on the price of subsistence in this district is carefully traced out. One wonders if it can still be said that economic investigations in the French Revolution are the fashion. At any rate there are new problems working out for many future investigations in this same fertile district of Flanders.

A recent volume entitled Cours de Doctrine et de Pratique Sociales (Paris, J. Gabalda, 1914; 511 pp.), containing twenty-seven lectures delivered at the tenth Semaine Sociale of France, is both interesting and important as an indication that, just before the Great War, the Catholics of European countries were devoting themselves as never before to the study of social and economic problems. Among the various methods adopted by the so-called "social Catholics" in their endeavor to give the rank and file an intelligent appreciation as well as

a practical program of social reform, probably the most conspicuous is the Semaine Sociale-a seven-days' course of popular lectures and conferences given each summer at a different city. In ten years the Semaine Sociale of France has won an international reputation. Its most recent session, held at Versailles from July 28 to August 3, 1913, thronged by a thousand Frenchmen, attracted visitors from all nations of western Europe, excepting only Portugal, and even from Canada, Argentina, and Brazil. The lectures, now published in book form, touch upon the most diverse topics, from the social philosophy of Dante and the Separatist philosophy of Locke to the legal protection of children and the closing of shops on Sunday; nevertheless the reader will discern a unifying theme, the idea of social responsibility. The social responsibilities of all classes of Catholics are discussed in turn by scholars like Mgr. Deploige, president of the Institut Supérieur de Philosophie at the now desolate University of Louvain, by theologians like the eloquent Abbé Sertillanges, by the secretary of the French Association for the Protection of Labor, by a member of the Chamber of Deputies, by professors of law from Catholic universities. Perhaps the most remarkable of the series is a discussion of trade-union ethics by Père Rutten, a Dominican who, out of sympathy for the proletariat, doffed his white friar's habit, donned the miner's smutty smock, lived the toilsome life of a day-laborer, and eventually became the active leader of a hundred thousand Catholic trade-unionists in Belgium.

The title of Mr. H. N. Brailsford's The War of Steel and Gold (London, G. Bell and Sons, 1914; 320 pp.) suggests the journalistic fashion in which the author studies the armed peace of Europe. His book was published just before the outbreak of the war and his argument derives special interest from that fact. Imperialism, in his view, is due to the pressure of capital seeking profitable investment in undeveloped countries. National economic rivalry is a rivalry not primarily in trade, but in finance; and modern wars, so far as they are fought for economic ends, determine who shall get railroad and mining concessions, rather than who shall carry on trade. Modern diplomacy is concerned chiefly with the same question, and the building of big navies is intended to put behind the diplomat the threat of armed force, securing valuable concessions for his nationals. This idea Mr. Brailsford illustrates by a variety of interesting examples. Egypt serves as the critical case. The second half of the book is an effort to develop a constructive policy of control of foreign investment and diplomacy, not only to prevent war but to do away with the necessity for large armaments. The interesting suggestion is made that Great Britain maintain a register

of all capital owned abroad by British subjects, with the idea of exercising control over such investments. While the book will not be accepted by economists and students of public law as an authoritative exposition of the problems with which it deals, it does give expression to a suggestive point of view concerning the relation between foreign investment and international affairs.

"To bring again to light the half-forgotten theories of the classical economists," in so far as they bear upon the problems of public credit and public debt, is the task which Dr. John Joseph Berckum sets before himself in his monograph entitled Das Staatsschuldenproblem im Lichte der Klassischen Nationalökonomie (Leipzig, A. Deichert, 1911; x, 243 pp.). Such an undertaking, he believes, may have results of "a not insignificant value from both a scientific and practical point of view." After an historical survey of the growth of public debts which occupies forty-eight pages, the author examines in turn the writings of Quesnay, Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, J. B. Say and John Stuart Mill. The first four of these economists Dr. Berckum credits with "truly original minds," and he concludes that a return to the old masters is advisable if "any but a surface explanation of the problems is desired."

In their effort to keep in touch with the many directions of research in economic theory, economists have keenly felt the need of a work that would give an adequate history and a just appreciation of the publications of the mathematical economists. Zawadzki's Les Mathématiques appliquées à l'économie politique (Paris, Marcel Rivière et Cie., 1914; 331 pp.) admirably meets this need. The work contains an account of the predecessors of Cournot; a discriminating appreciation of the contributions of Cournot himself, whom the author regards as "le premier économiste mathématicien scientifique "; a review of the origin and development of the theory of utility; a masterly presentation of the history and theory of economic equilibrium, and a critical exposition of Pareto's theory of choice. The author is able, erudite, and sympathetic with the aims of the mathematical school, and consequently his opinion as to the achievements of this group of economists should be carefully weighed. He believes (1) that the method used and popularized by Marshall and Edgeworth, which attempts to treat economic questions without an adequate theory of general equilibrium, gives only approximate results in the hands of these cautious investigators and is almost certain to lead to wrong conclusions when concrete problems are treated (pages 298-306, 315-318); (2) that the scientific importance of the method which has just been described is not comparable with

that originated by Walras and developed by Pareto (page 318); (3) that up to the present time, with the exception of an article by Pareto, the mathematical school has dealt with theoretical questions only under the assumption of statical relations; it has not touched concrete, dynamic problems (pages 320-321)—"ses théorèmes ne sont exacts que dans des conditions trop éloignées de la réalité; ses notions ne concordent pas avec celle de la vie ordinaire" (page 326); (4) that the promise of really helpful theoretical research is in the direction taken by the École de Lausanne.

Two other recent works on mathematical economics are Rudolf Auspitz and Richard Lieben's Recherches sur la théorie du prix (Paris, Giard and Brière, 1914; xxiii, 371 pp.), and E. Antonelli's Principes d'économie pure (Paris, Marcel Rivière et Cie., 1914; ix, 206 pp.). The first of these works, which is a translation of the wellknown Untersuchungen über die Theorie des Preises, contains only a very few minor additions to the original text, and these are pointed out by Richard Lieben in a prefatory note. Antonelli's volume is an attempt to present the substance of Walras's theory in a simplified form. It is carefully, reverently composed. In addition to his work of simplification, M. Antonelli elaborates his sketch of the life and work of Léon Walras, which was originally published in the Revue d'histoire des doctrines économiques et sociales for 1910. This sketch, together with the charming preface contributed by Professor Georges Renard, is the most complete account in existence of the inspiring life of the founder of the École de Lausanne.

Professor E. D. Durand of Minnesota has reprinted in a convenient volume entitled The Trust Problem (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1914; 145 pp.) his three lectures on that topic delivered at Harvard University and originally printed in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Dr. Durand is rather more skeptical of the possibility of regulating trusts than are most of his colleagues, and he demands that the trusts should be suppressed. Equally radical in the eyes of many, and perhaps even more questionable, is his suggestion that a vigorous exercise of the taxing power should be invoked to take away a large part of the monopoly profits. In the present welter of public opinion on the general subject, however, Dr. Durand's clear and suggestive presentation of a difficult problem is to be welcomed.

Mr. George H. Pownall, a prominent figure in the English banking world and vice-president of the Institute of Bankers, has published three lectures delivered at the London School of Economics under the title of English Banking (London, Blades, East and Blades, 1914;

Mr.

xv, 78 pp.). As Professor Foxwell states in an informing preface, Pownall's chief preoccupation has been with the question of the reserve. The author has been, and still is, a great advocate of the central-reserve system, and his warning that the cash reserve in England is inadequate has been amply justified by recent events. Among the many other interesting points touched upon by Mr. Pownall are the desirability of supplementing the consols by a new redeemable state security and by a change in the practice of the English banks. 'It is a moot question in my own mind," we read, "whether a great bill case is not better than investment and I incline plumb for bills." The student of modern banking problems will find much information and many acute suggestions in the excellent little book.

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Those interested in the details of the technique of the property and the income tax in Switzerland will find a full statement of the actual law and practice in each canton in the work by Fritz Ott entitled Die Vermögens und Einkommens-Steuern in der Schweiz. Orientierung für Steuerpflichtige (Zürich, Art Institut Orell Füssli, 1914; 279 pp.). The author is a Zürich lawyer who published some years ago a similar work on conditions in his own canton. The purpose of the volume is not so much to give a scientific discussion of principles as to present an authoritative statement of the actual law and the administrative procedure. Especially important is the full information with reference to local taxation.

The admirable work of Robert H. Whitten on Valuation of Public Service Corporations, which was noticed in the POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY for December, 1913, has been enriched by the Supplement, which is paged continuously with the original work (New York, The Banks Law Publishing Company, 1914; xxvii, 799-1443 PP.). Most of this volume is taken up with analyses of the many court and commission decisions that have appeared in the intervening two years, but there is also a further development of the author's statement of the legal and economic principles of valuation. In its present shape the work forms without doubt the most authoritative and up-to-date presentation of the theory and practice of valuation.

We have heard much in recent years about the tax on unearned increment in Germany, but very little has been written about the actual results of the experiment. Dr. Berthold, one of the assistants in the Prussian statistical bureau, has now undertaken to throw light on this subject by his monograph, Ergebnisse der Wertzuwachssteuer und die Wirkungen der Steuer auf den Grundstücksumsatz (Berlin, Franz Vahlen, 1914; 132 pp.). Dr. Otto Berthold first deals with the financial results which are shown to be of somewhat minor importance.