three the scene shifts to the United States, and the invention of the cotton gin is described. The next three books deal respectively with the slavery controversy, the Civil War, and the rise of cotton factories in the new South. The seventh and final book is entitled Cotton a World Trade; but contains a variety of topics from preparedness to evolution. The main thesis of the volume seems to be that cotton, by reason of its importance and the fact that its production is confined to a comparatively small area, has exercised a distinct and even dominating influence upon the destinies of nations. It formed the economic basis of India; its advent into England transformed that country from an agricultural nation to a manufacturing nation; and its culture in the United States changed the development of the South, gave a new lease of life to the system of slavery, and led to civil war. Today it again takes an important part in the world's commerce, and even in the European war it plays a deadly role through its use as gun cotton. This is indeed economic interpretation of history. Such interpretations are always interesting, if not entirely convincing. According to one economic historian the center of the world's civilization has shifted with the movement of the precious metals; another has found the explanation in the development of improved transportation; and now President Scherer sees in cotton the cause of the westward movement of human progress. The very multiplicity of these unitary explanations shows that perhaps the problem is more complex than any one of the writers admits. To the reviewer such a simplification even of the economic factors involved does not commend itself. A reductio ad unum becomes a reductio ad absurdum. The author has conceived the story of cotton as an epic, but has scarcely risen to its highest possibilities. The work is too long, there are too many digressions, and it is broken up into too small fragments. It bears evidence of having been written at intervals. But in spite of all these shortcomings President Scherer has succeeded in writing an interesting book, which is rendered the more readable by reason of an attractive style. ERNEST L. BOGART. University of Illinois. NEW BOOKS ACLOQUE, G. Les corporations, l'industrie et le commerce à chartres, du onzième siècle à la Révolution. (Paris: Picard. 1917.) CARQUEJA, B. DIBBLEE, G. B. Germany's economic position and England's commercial and industrial policy after the war. (London: Heinemann. 1917. Pp. 108. 1s.) DUTT, R. C. The economic history of India in the Victorian Age. Fourth edition. (New York: Dutton. 1916. Pp. 628. $2.50.) FURNISS, H. S., editor. The industrial outlook; being essays on construction by various authors. (London: Chatto & Windus. 1917. 3s. 6d.) GROTIUS, H. The freedom of the seas. Or the right which belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian trade. Translated with a revision of the Latin text of 1633 by R. VAN D. MAGOFFIN. Edited with introductory note, by JAMES BROWN SCOTT. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press. 1916. Pp. xv, 83. $1.) GUYOT, Y. Les causes et les conséquences de la guerre. (Paris: Alcan. 1917. 3.50 fr.) HARPELL, J. J. Canadian industry, commerce, and finance. (Montreal: Industrial & Educational Press. 1915. Pp. 386.) HIGGINSON, E. Alaska. The great country. New edition. (New York: Macmillan. 1917. $2.50.) KAHO, J. F. Note book for constructive work in commercial geography. (Topeka: Kans. Hist. Pub. Co. 1916. Pp. 120, illus. 35c.) MUKERJEE, R. The foundations of Indian economics. (New York: Longmans. 1916. Pp. xxvi, 515. $3.) OGG, F. A. Economic development of modern Europe. (New York: Macmillan. 1917.) PEIXOTTO, E. Our Hispanic Southwest. (New York: Scribner. 1916. Pp. xx, 245. $2.50.) PERET, R. La population, le budget, la fortune et la dette publique de la France, de ses alliés et de ses ennemis avant la guerre. (Paris: Alcan. 1917.) REID, W. A. Bolivia, the heart of a continent. (Washington: Gibson Bros. 1916. Pp. 53. Gratis.) THÉRY, E. Les problèmes économiques de la guerre, etudes économiques et financières. (Paris: Belin. 1917. 3.50 fr.) WATERMAN, T. T. Bandelier's contribution to the study of ancient Mexican social organization. (Berkeley, Cal.: Univ. of California. 1917. Pp. 249-282. 35c.) WESTERGAARD, W. The Danish West Indies. (New York: Macmillan. 1917. $2.50.) WEYL, W. E. American world policies. (New York: Macmillan. 1917. $1.50.) The American year book. A record of events and progress. 1916. Edited by FRANCIS G. WICKWARE. (New York: Appleton. 1917. Pp. 862.) Includes the following chapters: "Public resources and public works"; "Public services," by Richard C. Harrison; "Economic conditions and the conduct of business," by S. S. Huebner and Wesley C. Mitchell; "Public finance, banking, and insurance," by C. C. Williamson, Ray B. Westerfield, Wendell M. Strong, and S. S. Huebner; "Social and economic problems"; "Labor and labor legislation," by John B. Andrews and Irene Osgood Andrews; "Agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and fisheries"; "The mineral industries"; "Manufactures," by W. M. Steuart and Walter F. Rogers; "Trade, transportation, and communication," by Grover G. Huebner and Robert Riegel. Blue book of Salvador. Text in English and Spanish. (San Salvador: Latin American Publicity Bureau. 1916. Pp. 352, xli.) Early records of the city and county of Albany and Colony of Rensselaerswyck. Volume II. Deeds 3 and 4, 1678-1704. (Albany: Univ. of State of New York. 1916. Pp. 438.) Economic notes on Brazil. Second edition. (Rio de Janeiro: Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. 1916. Pp. 93. Gratis.) Facts about Georgia. (Atlanta: Georgia Chamber of Commerce. 1917. Pp. 280, illus. $1.) Mexico, a brief record of the economic conditions of the republic in their relation to the outside world. (New York: Mechanics & Metals National Bank. 1916. Pp. 46.) Werthner, W. B. How man makes markets; talks on commercial geography. (New York: Macmillan. 1917. Pp. ix, 200. 40c.) The Russian yearbook, 1916. (New York: Moody Mag. & Book Co. 1917. Pp. 800. $5.) Die wirtschaftliche Annäherung zwischen dem Deutschen Reiche und seinen Verbündeten herausgegeben im Auftrage des Vereins für Socialpolitik. (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. 1916. Pp. xiv, 403; x, 496.) Agriculture, Mining, Forestry, and Fisheries Agricultural Economics. A Selection of Materials in which Economic Principles are applied to the Practice of Agriculture. By EDWIN G. NOURSE. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1916. Pp. x, 896. $2.75.) Professor Nourse calls this a "composite textbook." It is composed of three elements: (1) short introductions by the editor pre fixed to each chapter, (2) excerpts from standard textbooks on economic theory, and (3) source materials. By such a combination the editor has sought to avoid on the one hand the incoherence and confusion characteristic of many volumes of “readings,” and on the other the hard and fast treatment often found in textbooks. Instead of constructing "a broad, smooth highway of thought, down which the student whizzes to his appointed destination without getting much benefit from his journey," he has sought to provide opportunity "to tarry and visit, to wander back and forth, to explore the country and learn the whole region. . . ." The "materials," forming the bulk of the volume, are grouped into seventeen chapters in a topical arrangement corresponding to that ordinarily found in systematic treatises of economic theory. These chapters fall into three divisions treating (1) the factors in the production of agricultural wealth, (2) the conditions influencing price determination and the methods of marketing farm products, and (3) the distribution of the income from the industry into rent, interest, wages, and profits. In this last group is a chapter on Rural Credits. In an emphatic position after the introductory historical chapter is a discussion of Consumption. In The yearbooks and farmers bulletins, of the United States Department of Agriculture, census publications, bulletins of state agricultural experiment stations, and county surveys have been liberally drawn upon. Besides this source material there are reprinted articles from the economic journals and excerpts from treatises on farm management and agricultural economics. each chapter the first few pages are from such economists as Marshall, Taussig, Seager, and Seligman, and in some cases from the writers of the classical school. Thus as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of each chapter there is presented a statement of the general principles on the basis of which the problems may be solved. The editor has succeeded in furnishing variety in his selections without sacrificing substantiality. He presents in well-systematized form a wide range of up-to-date facts concerning the agricultural industry of the United States, accompanied by carefully scientific and popularly interesting discussions of the meaning of these facts. The introductions by the editor are not uniformly valuable. They are not designed to reconcile the theories propounded by the authors quoted, nor to give an authoritative interpretation of the whole. In some places Professor Nourse has made a stimulating contribution, as for instance in Selection 120, The Possibilities of Coöperation, but in the majority of cases he is content to be expository rather than argumentative. His style is forceful and clear; the reader is apt to regret that the editor has not contributed more. Chapter 1, The Emergence of the Problem of Agricultural Economics, is disappointing. The editor's purpose was to trace the development of commercial agriculture out of self-sufficient farming. Here was an opportunity to teach students something about the history of agriculture in the United States, which in itself furnishes instructive illustrations of all the important steps in the commercialization of the industry. Instead, some thirty pages are devoted to the agriculture of primitive peoples and of classical antiquity, twenty more to medieval agriculture and the manor system. In the remainder of the chapter the best material on the history of American agriculture has not been utilized. Agricultural economics is a broader subject than farm management. It is not concerned only with teaching the individual farmer how to make the largest net profit. It is concerned also with those broad societal problems involving the place of the agricultural population and their industry in the national economy. The editor has kept well in the foreground the social aspect of such matters as the standard of living of the rural population and the defects of the labor force both in quality and quantity. In so doing he has justified his advocacy of the teaching of agricultural economics in every institution which aims to give a liberal education. PERCY WELLS BIDWELL. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University. NEW BOOKS BENSON, O. H. and BETTS, G. H. Agriculture and the farming business. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. 1917. Pp. 778. $3.50.) DENIS, L. G. and CHALLIES, J. B. Water powers of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. (Ottawa: Commission of Conservation, Canada. 1916. Pp. 334.) KAHO, J. F. Note book for constructive work in commercial geography. (Topeka: Kans. Hist. Pub. Co. 1916. Pp. 120, illus. 35c.) LONG, J. R. A treatise on the law of irrigation, covering all states and territories. Second edition. (Denver, Colo.: W. H. Courtright Pub. Co. 1916. Pp. xiii, 626. $7.50.) |