Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/740

 724 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Finally, whether we decline or consent to accept the par- ticular allegations and conclusions of these two thinkers, we cer- tainly cannot fail to notice one serious omission in both forms of treatment. There is no profound perception of the indi- vidual or social psychical, that is, of the peculiarly sociological basis and setting of this significant social phenomenon. This remained for another thinker, a specialist in sociology, of whom I shall speak presently in connection with the systematic sociologists.

Meanwhile the first of Biicher's lectures, which gave the title to the collection, has no little interest in its bearing upon the historical mode of sociological investigation. It treats of the origin of national industry ( Volkswirtschaff), and attempts to outline a universal scheme of its development. As criterion for characterization and designation of the different epochs in indus- trial history Bucher selects the objective circumstance, which is surely of vast importance for national economy, viz., the length of the course over which goods pass between the producer and the consumer. Accordingly, three epochs are distinguished ; those, namely, of: (i) domestic industry (ffauswirtsckaft), (2) municipal industry (Stadtwirtschafi), (3) national industry ( Volkswirtschafi). The first extended until about a thousand years after Christ ; the second survives even to our own day ; the third is really a development of present times. "The elabo- ration of national industry is essentially a result of that political centralization which begins at the turning point of the Middle Ages with the rise of territorial state structures, and reaches its culmination today in the creation of states, realizing "national unity" (des nationalen Einheitsstaates] (p. 67).

The whole tendency of economic politics since the sixteenth century has been for satisfaction of the impulse toward integra- tion of nationality. " In the latest phase of this development the principle of nationality has become an underlying motive of mighty consolidating force" (p. 75). Bucher experiences, therefore, neither the customary satisfaction, nor does he feel any alarm over the alleged present tendency to widen national