PRACTICAL THEORY
GENERAL works on economics vary in aim as well as in the success with which that aim is achieved. They may be, in the strict sense, introductions, designed to familiarise the reader with the terminology and the appropriate methods of thought of the subject, to indicate its relevance to current problems, and to stimulate interest. They may be summaries, quick sketches showing what it's all about, handy aids to an important branch of citizenship. They may be full-length treatises, majestically unfolding down to its last refinements their authors' considered corpus of theory. Among all these categories, moreover, they may be more or less abstract and theoretical, more or less practical and descriptive, more or less concerned with the relation of economics to the other social
sciences and to life in general, and finally, more or less outstand- ing or deficient in literary merit. ,
Dr. Benham's book could serve is an introduction, though it is:considerably more than that. It is definitely not a summary for the casual reader, though the subtitle should not frighten off those who, seriously desiring to qualify themselves to judge on economic matters, propose to study without the aid of a teacher. It is, in fact, an elementary full-length treatise. Whatever, broadly, is a matter of general agreement among economists, in all branches of the subject, is amply, exactly and logically explained. There is no dallying among curiosa, no challenge to controversy; open questions are merely indicated as such. If anyone expects to find here a London counterblast to Mr. Keynes, he will be disappointed. Dr. Benham, in short, offers his readers a training ground, not a battlefield. As between the abstract and the practical, he maintains a balance as rare as it is admirable. At no point is theory left in the air as a mere piece of mental gymnastics ; yet at no point does a weight of descriptive matter clog the direct advance of the argument. Quasi-philosophical questions of the status of economics and the role of the economist get, by deliberate inten- tion, little space. It is arguable that this is a mistake ; that there should be, for instance, at least some discussion of the relationship between the direction of activities by the demands of the consuming public and the direction of activities by the decisions of that same public acting as an electorate. Indeed, it is along this very borderline, dividing economics from politics, which Dr. Benham refuses to demarcate, that the weaker portions of his book are to be found. The public corporation gets no prominence in his outline of economic organisation, planning is damned sketchily in a single para- graph, the whole question of " unpaid costs and unappro- priated services " is dismissed in another. These complaints, however, would hardly come to the mind did the bulk of the book not set so high a standard. By virtue of its clarity, balance and realism it leads easily in its chosen field.
HONOR CROOME.
Previous page
