Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/463

 RECENT PERIODICALS AND NEW' BOOKS 441 question in the United States from its political aspect as regards America, and from its financial aspect as regards the foreign investor,' and to show that' the great centre of industrial activity in coal and iron is going to move its centre in the course of the next decade froin Pennsylvania to Virginia and Tennessee. After explaining how railw/ys are financed in America, and how railway monopolies are formed there, the writer urges that what is wanted to secure due influence to English capital invested in American railways is to collect the scattered and dis- jointed interests of English investors in the hands of one powerful corporation that makes its sole business the upholding of the voting value of these stocks. May. The Transatlantic Cattle Trade. By MORETON FREWEN. Recommends that the restraint upon importation of live cattle from the United States should be abolished, it being vital to the English farmer that he should be able to purchase store cattle in the United States market. Trades Unionism amon 9 Women,. By (1) LADY I)ILKE; (2) FLORENCE ROUTLEDGE. (1) Among the advantages claimed for this species of trades unionism are, that it would act as a safeguard against the temptation to which poverty exposes young women, and that it would prevent girls who have comfortable homes from underselling those who must work for a maintenance by giving their services for mere pocket-money. (2) The writer estimates that there are at least 57,800 women unionists in the United Kingdon. She observes that the subject is the more important in that the number of our female working population is growing more rapidly than that of our male. The publication of facts with regard to women's work, and to that end the enlargement of the Labour Department of the Board of Trade, are recommended. Virginian Mines and American Rails. (II.). Describes the mineral resources of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee, and shows that the coal and iron mines in these States, hitherto almost untouched, will soon be opened up in every direction. The result will be an extraordinary growth in the value of railways in the southern States. Hence an opportunity of profitable investment by English capitalists who will combine to assert a voice in the management (see Art I.). The Harvard Quarterly Journal of Economics (Boston). 1891. April. The Law of the Three Rents. By JOHN A. HOBSON. Observing that the law of diminishing returns applies with equal force to capital and labour as to land [Cp. Marshall, Prbciples of Economics, p. 423, note, last par. but one p. 545, note 2, book vi., ch. ii..; 5., par 1, et s.eq.] the writer presents. a view of the.theory o.f dis- tribution from which it is apparent that, m case of an increase in the product to be distributed, there is no simple formula for determining what proportion of the increased product goes to the owners of the three requisites of production respectively. Such problems 'are ex- tremely conplex: and it is safe to say, that any easy mode of treating