ABSTRACT
IT was never an easy task to write a good textbook of political economy, and today it has become more difficult than ever. The scope of this subject has expanded a great deal in recent decades, on the one hand because of important researches in the historical and statistical fields, and on the other through no less important and penetrating achievements in the field of pure theory. It is certainly not given to everyone to master both these fields at the same time, or even to have the art of presenting their principal results concisely and lucidly. I do not think it could be maintained that Pareto has successfully overcome all the difficulties involved, but this work of his is nevertheless a valuable addition to the none too abundant modern textbooks. It is full of interesting comparisons and acute remarks, and the writer everywhere strikes his reader as a sincere man of research and a person of understanding. I wish to emphasise this expressly to begin with, since in the following I will be obliged for lack of space to confine myself to those points where my opinion differs from that of Pareto.
