BÖHM-BAWERK, Eugen von.

£4,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Rechte und Verhältnisse vom Standpunkte der volkswirthschaftlichen Güterlehre. First edition of Böhm-Bawerk's first publication, based on his doctoral thesis, and laying the foundation for his monumental Kapital und Kapitalzins (1884-1889). This copy, though unmarked as such, is from the Library of William Smart (1853-1915), professor of Economics at Glasgow University, and translator of Böhm-Bawerk and Wieser. The volume is identically bound as a copy of Menger's Grundsätze, inscribed by Menger to Smart, which originated from the same source."For the creative scientist, definitions are a subordinate matter. New insights at first simply occur; they appear suddenly, no one knows whence they came or how they got there. Definitions become necessary only when applying them, and then of course when describing them. Involving himself in this latter task, Böhm-Bawerk ran into the ancient controversy over the concept of an economic good. His first publication... attacks this problem. Having solved it with characteristic care and clarity, he was confronted by the two main tasks which had to precede the actual construction of his system. The fundamental explanatory principle of any system of economics is always a theory of value. Economic theory concerns facts that are expressed in terms of value, and value is not only the prime mover of the economic cosmos, but also the form in which its phenomena are made comparable and measurable. The theorist's view of the economic world depends on

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