Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/788

 766 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL amongst whom are men like Galiani, Genovesi, Beccaria, Verri, Ortes, Filangieri and Gioia, inferior to none of the French physiocrats, and secondly, the conviction that the actual renewal of economic studies in that aountry was due to German influence. This second motive deter- mined also the choice of the epoch from which he begins his analysis of modern Italian economists. There is a legend about the year 1875, believed in abroad, judging from some histories of economical doctrines like Prof. Ingram's and Dr. K. Walcker's (of Leipzig), according to which in that year Italians met with a fortunate accident, somewhat like Saul's adventure, and had their eyes opened to the light of truth in the shape of foreign literature and particularly German economical studies, by the Congress of Economists which met at Milan. Now the truth is, that only through foreign influence economical studies were revived in Italy, but it is quite baseless to consider the Congress men of 1875 as the originators of the movement. In the first place, ever since 1859 and 1866, Italy had received a whole staff of Austrian professors, handed over to it with the universities of the north-eastern provinces, and before 1859, Italy had always been, through these provinces, and the others which were directly and in- directly under Austrian dominion, in closest contact with German science,--just as the upper classes of Hindoos are now in contact with English science. But economical science was in Germany, till after the middle of this century, far behind the level it had attained in England and in France, and, as a matter of fact, only gained for itself a reputa- tion when the historical school sprang up vigorously; so that there was in this particular branch very little to learn by looking to the north. In the second place, long before the Congress in Milan, Pro- fessor Ferrara had realised a feat which, as far as I know, is un- paralleled by any other effort made elsewhere to diffuse foreign know- ledge in a certain branch amongst a backward nation, viz., he had translated and commented on every foreign economist worth naming, creating in this way a collection very properly called Bibl{t dell' Economista. (26 vol. in large 8vo.) Besides, the political convulsions of the country had scattered many of the best Italians as exiles throughout Europe, and their return was as good as a foreign immigration to that extent. The youth of the universities, whenever their means permitted it, had taken to visiting ' foreign universities, and Italian students were then as numerous abroad as now Russian ones are. What really happened at Milan was the formation of a group of Socialists of the chair, and the Congress itself was a pale imitation of the one of Eisenach. It reacted, however, usefully on economic studies in Italy through the controversies to which it led amongst Italians and by attracting in a prominent manner their attention again to German literature, just at a time when the labours of Schiifl]e, Wagner and v. Stein were giving ecoromical studies there a very thorough-