L'Europe Économique by Edmond ThéryReview by: P. A.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 75, No. 3 (Feb., 1912), pp. 329-331Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2340257 .

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1912.] Peviews of Statistical and Economic Books. 329

by the ordinary growth of population. The differenices between these estimated numbers and the actual numbers in the various groups as given by the income-tax statistics represent the movenment of persons from group to group. Obviously, the " natural" rate of growth assumed for the different groups is of considerable importance. The rate actually applied to each group by the author is the rate of growth of the general population, i.e., she assumes that the growth of population in itself would maintain the numbers in the different groups relatively unaltered. It may probably be taken as certain, however, that this assumption would not agree with the facts if they were known, and Dr. Peris' results, therefore, can only be regarded as rough approximatiotns. For further details of the method employed, and for the results, the reader must be referred to the book itself.

Using her results, together with estimates of average incomes arrived at by other investigators (whose estimates, however, he thinks too low), Dr. Peris concludes that the average itncome per income-receiver has increased between 1896 and 1906 from about 884 marks to 1,055 marks, or I9 per cent., which leaves a small margin of real increase after allowing for the rise in prices of food clothing, housing, &c. A.D.W.

4.-L'Europe Jconomique. Par Edmond Thery. 329 pp., 8vo. Paris: L'Economiste Eurqopven, 1911. Price 3 frs. 50.

In the preface to this work the well-known director of the Economiste Eurofpren appears to suggest that, jtust as France was formed by the gradual consolidation of a number of fiefs which at one time were almost independent, so out of the present divided and distracted Europe there will one day arise a Europe "one and indivisible," and that his object is to turn men's minds away from national economies to the consideration of Europe as a unit. But at the same time M. Thery does not succeed in mastering his own national feelings, and his book is full of international comparisons, to the advantage or incentive of France.

M. Th4ry's method is to suirvey in turn first the territorial changes and then the development of population, state expenditure, means of transport and communication, agriculture, production of coal, iron and steel and other materials of industry, and foreign trade for individual countries and for Europe as a whole, in some cases over fifty years, and in others over a shorter period. There is interpolated an account of the history, powers and positions of the banks of issue in eighteen European countries; this covers 153 pages, or nearly one half of the book, and, though it is not without use, the precise purpose which it serves in the present con- nexion is not very apparent. It is possible, however, that the author, having the reports of the United States Monetary Commission before him, thought that some part of them might be summarised with advantage to the general public.

In the other sections M. Thdry has brought together a large number of interestinig statistical data-almost too many, for the book is crowded, and there is a tendency to set out elaborately in

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330 lbeviews of Statisdical and Economic Boo!~.s.. [Feb.

the text facts which have already been clearly expressed in the tables. Some of the results are instructive. Thus the estimated population of Europe, which was 278 millions in 1858, rose to 3,5 millions in 1883, and 436 millions in 1908: the increase between 1883 and 1908 was thus 30 per cent. for Europe as a whole, but for France it was only 4 per cent., while for Russia it was 51 per cent. Even if the last figure be somewhat exaggerated, it is inevertheless of serious import. The difficulties in the way of estimating the total governmental expenditure of Eiirope are very considerable, and we are by no means sure that M. Th6ry has overcome them even to the limited extent which he imagines, but his estimate that the total expenditure of the European States (as provided for in their budgets) was 8,ioo million francs in 1858, 17,908 millions in 1883, and 35,988 millions (or almost exactly double) in 1908, is interesting. It is, however, important to bear in mind two facts to which, in dwellitig on this, M. Thery does not appear to give sufficient weight-first, that a large part of the increase is due to the acqaisition by goverinents of industrial enterprises (e.g., railways in Russia and Prussia) whose working expenses figure in government expenditures; and, secondly, the rapid increase in wealth, which has rendered the increase in the burden of taxation less heavy than would appear at first sight. In spite of these criticisms, the section on public finances is perhaps the most suggestive in the book.

Two interesting tables in the section on transport and communi- cation give the length of time occupied by the mail-coaches from Paris to various important French provincial towns in 1840, with average hourly speed and fares per kilometre, and siniilar data for railway travelling in 1910. A good deal of information for various countries as to length of railways, inercantile marine, number of post and telegraph offices and of letters and telegrams despatched, number of telephone offices and length of wires is summarised in this section.

In the sections relating to agriculture and to the production of various other commodities (chiefly materials for industry), M. Thery is uniable to limit his survey to Europe, if only in order to indicate her dependence upon the rest of the world. The first of these sections is admittedly an attempt to popularise the results of the enquiries of the International Agricultural Institute; in the second such items as nickel, aluminium and mercury seem to be given unnecessary prominence (they get a little over four pages, whilst cotton and wool are accorded five and three-quarters). The final section, dealing with foreign trade, has som-e useful sunuiniaries; but it would have been much more valuable if, instead of contenting himself with adding together the imports of all European countries, and also their exports (thus giving figures which really mean very little) M. Th6ry had attempted to calculate the real import and export trade of Europe with the rest of the world.

There are some other criticisms of detail which may be made. On page 268 the principal non-European producers of wheat are said to be the United States, the British Indies, Argentina and Australia-

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1912.] Peviews of Statisticail and Economic Books. 331

Canada being omitted; oIi page 324 it is asserted that the principal cause of Germany's economic progress between 1880 and 1890 was the tariff policy of Bismarck-a statement which is, to say the least, highly controversial; and on page 325 the continued progress of Germany after 1890 is ascribed to the Caprivi treaties, an incomparable technical education, and "emigration and growth of population," a cryptic remark unless " emigration" is a slip for " immigration."

M. Thery is appealing, apparently, chiefly to "the ordinary reader." His book is interesting in many ways; we have some doubt, however, as to whether it is sufficiently so for that rather intangible person, and the student will naturally go to the more original sources of information. P.A.

5.-L'4volution industr-ielle de la Belgique. Par Jan St. Lewinski. xiv + 444 pp., 8vo. Brussels: Misch et Thosh, 1911. Price io francs.

The principal objects of this volume, which is one of the publica- tions of the Solvay Institute of Sociology at Brussels, appear to be (1) to describe the nature and extent of the changes in industrial organisation through which Belgium passed in the second half of the nineteenth century-there is a short sketch of the economic r-igime which prevailed about the end of the eighteenth century, but this is merely by way of introduction; (2) to demon- strate the futility of any efforts to prevent any portion of Belgian industry from passing entirely under the domination of the factory system and production on a large scale; and (3) to attack the methods of most recent economic historians, and explain the superiority of those employed by the author. The predomin- ance of the latter motive does not enhance the amenity or the value of M. Lewinski's book. His attack on what he calls the " School of Schmoller," because of their presumed failure to illumine their historical works by any "directing ideas" or generalisations is hardly to be taken seriously; and the author's own method-the " combinaison de la ddduction avee l'induction " is neither so novel nor, in the present case, so effective as he appears to suppose. His book strives to be a manual of the theory of the development of industrial organisation, and a history of industrial Belgium in support of the theory put forward (thus after 17 pages of "con- siddrations thgoriques " on the decline of domestic industry, we have 6 pages of " verification des conclusions thdoriques "); and to us it appears to be not very successful on either side. We would gladly have sacrificed a considerable amount of the discussion of principles, and of attacks on doctrines rarely held as M. Lewinski states them, if we could have been given a fuller history.

M. Lewinski has taken as the principal materials for his work fotir official publications of the Belgian Government: the Recensement g4n!ral de l'industrie of 1846; the Recensement g4nAral des industries et des mitiers, made half-a-century later; Les Industries a domicile ern Belgique (10 vols. published between 1899 and 1909); and the Report (in 10 vols. also) of the Commission nationale de la petite bourgeoisie (1903-5). From these he traces the decline of the crafts

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