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Arthur Spiethoff on Economic Styles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Fritz Redlich
Fritz Redlich
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Retired
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Extract

Almost two decades ago, Professor Frederic C. Lane, assisted by Dr. Jelle C. Riemersma, prepared a book of readings in economic history, published in 1953, by Richard D. Irwin, Inc., under the title Enterprise and Secular Change. At that time I suggested the inclusion after translation of Arthur Spiethoff's article, “Die Allgemeine Volkswirtschaftslehre als geschichtliche Theorie: Die Wirtschaftsstile,” published in the Festgabe für Sombart in Schmollers Jahrbuch, LVI, No. 6 (1932), 51 fr. When Professor Spiethoff was informed of this suggestion, he refused to give the needed permission since his ideas on the subject had matured. Instead he sent an original article consisting of several sections, some of which I translated. Spiethoff's pertinent ideas were then published in translation in America in two separate papers. One, entitled “The ‘Historical’ Character of Economic Theories,” is to be found in the Journal of Economic History, XII (1952), 131 ff; the other, “Pure Theory and Gestalt Theory: Ideal Types and Real Types,” appeared in the Lane-Riemersma reader just cited. The rest of Spiethoff's original article remained untranslated. One section of it is now being submitted.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , September 1970 , pp. 640 - 652
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1970

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References

1 The original article and the correspondence with Professor Spiethoff are deposited in the Baker Library archive at Harvard University.

2 Lane, F. C. and Riemersma, J. C., Enterprise and Secular Change (Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1953), pp. 450 ffGoogle Scholar. The quotations are on pages 450, 451.

3 This statement follows closely that made by the translator in the introduction to the article mentioned above in The Journal of Economic History, XII (Spring 1952), 131Google Scholar.

4 For Spiethoff's own interpretation of Gestalt theory, see his article in the Lane-Riemersma reader as cited in footnote 2.

5 For the discussion with von, Georg Below, see “Probleme der Wirtschaftsgeschichte,” in Schmollers Jahrbuch, XLIII, No. 4 (1920), 84, 85Google Scholar. For the remainder of the preceding paragraph, the reader is referred to Sombart's book Die Ordnung des Wirtschaftslebens (Berlin, 1925), p. 2 ff.Google Scholar; and his article “Die gewerbliche Arbeit und ihre Organisation,” in Archiv für Soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik, XIV (1899), 311, 312Google Scholar.

6 Sombart, Ordnung des Wirtschaftslebens, p. 14.

7 Sombart, Werner, Die drei Nationalökonomieen (Munich and Leipzig, 1930), 211–13Google Scholar.

8 A polemical discussion following at this point is dropped (translator's footnote).

9 See below, pages 649–50.

10 See above, page 644. [Spiethoff cites in this connection the book by Wagenführ, Horst, Der Systemgedanke in der Nationalökonomie, erne methodengeschichtliche Betrachtung, (Jena, 1933)Google Scholar; but the passage in question has been omitted here.]

11 Bechtel, Heinrich, “Kunstgeschichte als Erkenntnisquelle für den Wirtschaftsgeist des Spätmittelalters,” in Schmollers Jahrbuch, LI, No. 2 (1927), 45 ff.Google Scholar; Der Wirtschaftsstil des späten Mittelalters: der Ausdruck der Lebensform in Wirtschaft, Gesellschaftsaubau und Kunst von 1350–1500 (Munich and Leipzig, 1930), pp. 8, 9, 14, 301, 302Google Scholar.

12 Translator's note: Spiethoff did not point out the similarity of this idea with those of Karl Lamprecht. Lamprecht used the term “Diapason, derived from the language of the organ builder and player to denote the all-permeating spirit of a historical period.

13 Translator's note: the translator would object to this kind of argumentation because in historical and societal life there is not one-way causation. Historical and societal life is determined by interaction.

14 Sedlmayr, Hans, Verlust der Mitte (Salsburg, 1948)Google Scholar, passim.

15 Müller-Armack, Alfred, Genealogie der Wirtschaftsstile, die geistesgeschichtlichen Ursprünge der Staats-und Wirtschaftsformen bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1941), pp. 14, 15. (3d edition, 1944.)Google Scholar

16 Muhs, Karl, “Zur weltanschaulichen Deutung der Kultur-und Wirtschaftsstile,” in Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, X, Nos. 3–4 (1943), 398 ffGoogle Scholar. has pointed out the shortcomings of Müller-Armack's presentation of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

17 Ritschl, Hans, “Wandlungen im Objekt und in den Methoden der Volkswirtschaftslehre,” in Schmollers Jahrbuch, LXVII (1943)Google Scholar, passim; Theoretische Volkswirtschaftslehre, I (Tübingen, 1943), 115–17, 120–22.Google Scholar

18 Weippert, Georg, “Zum Begriff des Wirtschaftsstils,” in Schmollers Jahrbuch, LXII, Nos. 4 and 5 (1943), 33 ffGoogle Scholar.

19 Translator's note: Spiethoff omitted to point to certain similarities of Weippert's interpretation of Sombart's concept with a basic idea of von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld. The latter denoted the ideal Gestalt of all economic life as ewige Wirtschaft (eternal economy). Weippert wrote the biographical sketch of von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld for the Neue Deutsche Biographic. From this fact one may conclude that Weippert was aware of von Gottl's thinking and that this fact was known in Germany; otherwise he would not have been included as his biographer.

20 Translator's note: In the manuscript the main parts of the last sentence are underlined.

The use of von Gotte-Ottlilienfeld's term “eternal economy” may make the basic idea clearer, especially when the term reappears in the next paragraph. Otherwise one would have to translate the passage in question by saying; “introducing the idea of an ideal type of economy.”

21 See the Lane-Riemersma reader, pp. 451 ff.

22 Müller-Armack, Alfred, “Zur Metaphysik der Kulturstile,” in Zeitschrift for die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, CV, No. 1 (1948), 29 ffGoogle Scholar.