Among Venetian economists there are, besides Alessandro Rossi, the following writers :-Emilio Morpurgo, an elegant writer of economic, statistical, and financial articles; Elia Lattes, who has given a learned and able account of the early Venetian banks, and of mortgage credit; Alberto Errera, the laborious compiler of books and articles on economic history and statistics; Tullio Martelli, the historian of the Internazionale; Stivanello; Forti, the editor of the Giornale degli Economisti (which has now stopped); Salvioni, &c.; and finally, Giuseppe Toniolo, the sober and accurate writer of memoirs on small industries, on method, on the moral element in economics, on wages, on participation in profits, and on rent. In Central Italy and in Tuscany the good traditions of the science were kept up in teaching and writing; in the former by Torrigiani, Montanari, Marescotti, Martinelli, Carpi, Piperno, and Pompilj; and in the latter by Ridolfi, Corsi, Cini, Andreucci, Rubieri, Fontanelli, the two Sonnino, Franchetti, Protonotari, the careful director of the Nuova Antologia, and others. In the southern provinces the writers on the social sciences, though sometimes a little vague and abstract, and even careless in style, are now as always zealous in the study of economics. There is a distinguished group of teachers who are free from the above defects, and who from time to time have given excellent proofs of profound and able investigation. The highest positions in this group are held by Scialoja (died 1877), Magliani, Baer, de Cesare, Racioppi, and the Sicilian Busacca. Among those whose powers have been less tested we may note the Neapolitans, Miraglia, Schiattarella, Lo Savio, Simoni, Fiorilli, Fortunato, and ૨ more especially-on account of the line of study which they followed-Antonio Salandra, a critic of great ability and of varied and solid culture; Cognetti de Martiis, a learned contributor to the Biblioteca dell' Economista, an authority on the Neapolitan economists, and well versed in monetary theories; Tommaso Fornari, who is preparing a learned and accurate historical work on the Neapolitan economists; and the Sicilians, Vito Cusumano and Giuseppe Ricca Salerno, who specially studied the German economists. Cusumano was the author of some learned historical works, some of which have been already mentioned. Ricca wrote three excellent monographs on the theory of capital (1877), the theory of wages (1878), and the theory of public loans (1879), besides many remarkable critical articles which appeared in various reviews. During the last seven years the more accurate study which has been bestowed on foreign writers, particularly by young men from the universities of Northern Italy, has given an effectual impulse to scientific investigation. The instructors of these younger economists were publicly denounced in 1874 by Ferrara, and branded as Germanists, socialists, and corrupters of the Italian youth. This provoked a prompt and successful retort from Luzzati, who, with the help of Lampertico and Scialoja, convoked in Milan the first Congress of Economists (January, 1875). The purpose of this gathering was to make clear the intentions of those who do not blindly believe that the science was born and died with Adam Smith and his commentators. It gave rise to vivacious and not invariably courteous disputes, diffusely stated in a large number of writings, which, either from hasty compilation or from an incomplete study of authorities, seldom led to serious or satisfactory results. Better results perhaps may come before long. But we must, in conclusion, express the hope that calm scientific discussion will no longer be disturbed by political wrangling, from which the economist should hold himself steadily aloof. |