Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/860

 TH ECONOMIC JOURNAL Giornale degli Economisti (Roma) 1891. September. La situazione del mercato monetario. (X.) II. La psiche bianca e la psiche negra. III. Lasciate fare, lasciate passare. V. Pareto. IV. Punto di vista: a proposito dell' "Economia politica in opposizione alla teoria generale dell' evohzione." A.J. de Johannis. V. Corrispondenza : Lettera del Senatore F. Ferrara. VI. Rivista del Credgto popolare. E. Levi. IOctober. I. La situzione del metcato monetario. (X.) II. L'Economia politica nella Spagaa, nel Portogallo, nel Belgio aei Paesi bassi. L. Cossa. III. Banche, banchieri e usurai nelle commedie di Platto. S. Cognetti de Martiis. IV. La scwla del metodo storico e l'evoluzionismo. G.B. Salvioni. V. Nora: Ancora a proposito della teoria del baratto. F. Y. Edgeworth. VI. Previdenza. C. Bottoni. .Four articles on ' Political Economy in Opposition to the General Theory of Evolution,' written from Venice for the Giorale degli Economisti (June, July, Aug., Sept., 1891), have attracted much attention in Italy, partly from their literary power, and partly because anonymous, the writer signing himself only with three asterisks. His articles profess to be a commentary on an Inaugural Lecture of Professor Messedaglia's, but the real objects of his attack are Professor Boccardo and Professor Cognetti de Martiis. Against them he contends that me.n differ from animals, not only in degree, but in kind; there is a ' hatus' between human psychology and all others; hence political economy is distinctively human; men alone have unlimited and pro- gressive wants (whence the phenomenon of value); man alone produces with set purpose and calculation; he alone has free choice; he alone can anticipate the future, and change the struggle for existence into the struggle for enjoyment. On the contrary assumptions Political Economy is impossible. The .w. r!ter also insists on the existence of a hiat between matter and hwng creatures, and on the complete absence of any hiats between one race of men and another (the black Psyc. he is as the white Psyche see Sept. article, p. 215). His un- sparing polemic is directed against modern biologists, sociologists, and physicists, though his illustrations are chiefly biological. The.se articles have called out a temperate reply from Dr. A. J. cle Johanms (Sept.), who, like Cromwell, beseeches his opponent to believe it possible that he may be mistaken, and deplores dognatism on natters too hard as yet for human solution even if allowed relevant to the issues. He asks if ' il Signor Tre Stelle ' wants to create a Political Economy that is to be ' natural' in an 18th century sense (p. 239). Dr. Salvioni also offers a reply (October). He points out that the Historical School consists of more than one group, and is by no means necessarily identified with the evolution theory in the sense in which ' Tre Stelle ' opposes it. It will be curious to see whether the Editors of the Giorale have really fertilized Political Economy in'Italy by allowing their con- tributors to dig at the roots of it in this manner.