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The bulk of the monograph is devoted to a study of the effects of the tax upon the transfer of land. His conclusion, after a detailed survey of the facts in local communities, is that in the main the tax has not been shifted, and that the result has been to discourage the smaller speculator and the more or less insolvent purchaser. The author believes that on the whole the tax has decreased unwise speculation, and has approved itself in most of the communities.

A melancholy interest attaches to the last work of the gifted Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu on the fiscal situation of the chief belligerent countries, Les Impôts et les Revenus en France, en Angleterre et en Allemagne (Paris, Librairie Armand Colin, 1914; 68 pp.), written before the outbreak of the conflict where the author has recently found a warrior's death. The little book gives a clear picture of the recent changes in the fiscal systems in France, England, and Germany, with a number of incidental references to our own income tax. The monograph is intended to warn against an exaggerated increase of direct as over against indirect taxation. In this M. Beaulieu follows in the footsteps of his eminent father, who still wields a vigorous and facile pen in opposition to what is the undoubted fiscal development in France.

Professor Karl Diehl, as editor, has initiated a series of contributions to the history of economics by two solid productions. The one by Dr. Edmund Schreiber is entitled Die volkswirtschaftlichen Anschauungen der Scholastik seit Thomas v. Aquin (Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1913; viii, 246 pp.). About one-half of Dr. Schreiber's monograph deals with the views of Thomas Aquinas on value and price. His successors are treated under several heads. First comes the gradual unfolding of the subjective theory by Bonaventure, Henry of Ghent, Richard of Middletown and Duns Scotus. Next comes the principle of freedom of contract as outlined by Lessinus, de Mayronis, Peter de Palude, Buridan and Oresme. Then follows the reaction represented by Langenstein, Oyta and Gerson. Finally comes the compromise, represented by Nider, Laurence de Rodulfis, Antony of Florence, and Bernard of Siena. These names, it will be seen, are not new. The book, therefore, can not be called an original contribution to medieval economics. Its value however consists not only in a fresh first-hand study of the authors mentioned, but also in a detailed account of the literature that has been hitherto devoted to each one of the writers. From this point of view it is a useful contribution to the subject.

The other work, by Dr. Kurt Zielenziger, is entitled Die alten deutschen Kameralisten (Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1914; xiii, 468 pp.) Dr. Zielenziger's work had scarcely been begun when Professor Small's

book made its appearance; but the author considered for three reasons that this did not render his work unnecessary. In the first place Dr. Small's book, being written in English, would probably not be consulted much in Germany. In the second place, Dr. Zielenziger differs with Small on some important points, especially in considering Cameralism to be only a subordinate part of Mercantilism. In the third place, he has treated of certain authors that escaped even Professor Small's vigilant scrutiny. After a long introduction in which the author takes up again the much-disputed question as to what is the real essence of Mercantilism, he tries to distinguish between the true and the false Cameralists in giving an account of the separate authors. His interpretation is frequently at variance with that of Small, as, for instance, when he disputes the latter's contention as to the originality of Obrecht. The two new Cameralists whom Zielenziger adds to the usually accepted list are Johann Georg Leib and Theodor Ludwig Lau. The conclusion of Dr. Zielenziger's painstaking work is that while these representatives of the earliest German economic literature had neither the depth nor the originality of their English contemporaries, they deserve more attention than has hitherto been accorded to them.

The Italians have in recent years acquired the somewhat doubtful reputation of devoting huge volumes to topics which in other countries are generally handled in a much more summary way. With the increasing importance attached to the problems of double taxation, it is not surprising to find such a volume devoted to the subject under the title of Le Doppie Imposizioni (Citta de Castello, S. Lapi, 1914; 8vo, 682 pp.), by Dr. Giovanni Fasolis. Possessing a thorough acquaintance with the entire literature of the subject, American as well as European, Dr. Fasolis has added to our information by including in his study a careful treatment of the Italian jurisprudence of the subject. Among the other valuable features of the monograph is the juxtaposition of the different views held by various authorities on almost every controverted phase of theory. This does not, however, prevent Dr. Fasolis from coming to certain very definite conclusions of his own, as for instance when he states that in no case is a simultaneous taxation of corporation and security-holder legitimate. Students of current American problems will find much food for reflection in this latest contribution to the subject.

An illustration of the thoroughness with which the Germans acquaint themselves with the nature and possibilities of a region before they venture to do business there is furnished by the work of Dr. Ernst Wagemann on Die Wirtschaftsverfassung der Republik Chile (Münich and

Leipzig, Duncker und Humblot, 1913; vii, 253 pp.). Devoted primarily to an examination of the historical development of the Chilean monetary system, it describes also the numerous factors in the industrial, commercial, social and political situation which have determined the process. A bibliography and a series of statistical tables complete what is probably the most authoritative account yet published of Chilean economic conditions. It deserves to be read with care by those now engaged in promoting closer trade relations between the United States and this part of Latin America.

With the exception of annual reports of government departments, extra-official parliamentary hand-books, and the annals issued from the headquarters of political parties, there can scarcely be an English annual that is more serviceable in a library of political science than the Shipping World Year Book (London, Office of the Shipping World, 1915; xxxii, 2004 pp., maps). It is edited by Major Rowland Jones, who served in the Civil War and who is well known as the author of Four Years in the Army of the Potomac. The current issue is a volume of two thousand pages. Digests of the statutes affecting coastwise and oversea trade-what may be described as the mercantile marine code of Great Britain-extended to 220 pages; and 1030 pages are devoted to tariffs. Every nation with a tariff-protective tariff or tariff for revenue only-is included in this admirably arranged compilation. Tonnage and shipbuilding statistics, like the digests of shipping laws and the tariffs of all nations, are standing features of the Year Book. New features in the twenty-ninth edition are tables of freeboard, revised by the British Board of Trade, and a summary of the present position of European nations in respect to an international load-line.

American Shipping: Its History and Economic Conditions (Jena, (Gustav Fischer, 1913; xx, 144 pp.), by Hans Keiler, is a chronological account of the development of American shipping from colonial times down to the present, with some consideration of the legislation of the different periods. Written largely from secondary sources, it contains little that is new even to casual students of the subject. It includes some discussion of the causes of the decline of our shipping since the Civil War, but little that is not found in other works.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

QUARTERLY

A

THE VIRGINIA DEBT CONTROVERSY'

STATE in the American union possesses a unique status incapable of easy definition. It occupies a middle

position, superior to that of a private litigant, but below that of a sovereign or independent nation. A state cannot in general be sued by individuals without its consent, but the performance of contracts in which individuals are concerned can be forced by the Supreme Court. When the contract is between two states it has a binding force greater than that of any treaty between nations. For while the general sanctions of international law are alone relied upon for the enforcement of treaties, an American state is definitely answerable to the Supreme Court for the performance of its obligations to other states, and is subject to judgment in case these obligations are neglected. Theoretically, of course, a state may resist the execution of a decree of the Supreme Court, but such resistance has been tried so seldom that it is out of the question as a practical course of action. The Supreme Court, it may be noticed, in deciding between states, exercises a power greater than that of an international arbitrator. It has the authority to

'I desire here to acknowledge my special indebtedness to Hon. A. A. Lilly, attorney-general of West Virginia, for supplying valuable documentary material, and to Col. William A. Anderson of Lexington, former attorney-general of Virginia, a man thoroughly familiar with every stage of the litigation, for his kind assistance in criticizing my manuscript and affording me the courtesy of a long interview. Valuable material, besides, has been lent to me, and bibliographical aids have been furnished by Dr. Herbert Putnam, librarian of Congress, and Dr. H. R. McIlwaine, state librarian of Virginia. Through the office of the clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States I have been kept advised of many important points in the litigation.

summon a defendant state on the filing of the plaintiff state's bill-a power which belongs to no international court. Its decrees, furthermore, are of more force than an arbitral award, for they are the law of the land. Thus, while a controversy between states may be quasi-international, and may often rest in principle on the law of nations, yet subordination and not sovereignty is its controlling feature.

When West Virginia parted from Virginia in 1863 there were two important matters which remained for later adjustment -the fixing of the boundary, and the apportionment of the debt. The first of these was settled with reasonable promptness by the Supreme Court in 1870, when the right of West Virginia to two counties in dispute was upheld.' The debt question has remained unsettled for half a century, during which time no part of the common debt has been assumed by the new state, while in the Old Dominion the debt has been ever present as a vexing problem, both in finance and in politics. The relations ensuing between the states, so far as they pertain to this debt, constitute the theme of this article.

The amount of Virginia's debt was $33,897,073.82 on January 1, 1861, a date selected because of its convenience in the calendar year, and because it roughly corresponds to the secession of Virginia and the de facto separation of the two states. An analysis of the substance of the debt will show that it comprised an elaborate series of schedules, representing expenditures, mostly since 1830, for river improvements, surveys, swamp reclamation, canals, roads, turnpikes, railroads, bridges and navigation companies. These expenditures, besides revealing a lively activity on the part of the state government for various forms of internal improvements, bring to light certain significant features of Virginia's method of promoting economic development. The practice of subsidizing railroads and im

In this case the jurisdiction of West Virginia over Berkeley and Jefferson counties was sustained. The acts of the "restored" government of Virginia were treated as valid, and the case therefore involves a recognition by the Supreme Court of the legality of the process by which West Virginia was created. This was simply an ap plication of the Supreme Court's general policy of acquiescence in the settlement of political questions.

II Wallace 39.

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