Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economic Theory

Von Boehm-Bawerk is one of the leading economists of the so-called Austrian school. With Karl Menger and others, he has contributed to the development of a theory of value which has received wide acceptance, and has been the cause of still wider discussion, in the economic world. This theory, as elaborated by Boehm von Bawerk, is based largely upon psychological principles. Its chief feature consists in a searching analysis of ‘subjective value.’ In his “Capital and Interest”, the author makes a brilliant and original study of these two subjects. He does not accept the connuon classification of land, labor, and capital as the three sources of production, but regards the two former only as real sources, while capital is only a means of production. ‘Interest’ is employed as a general term for interest in the common sense, and for profits, and its cause and justification are found in the great principle of the difference in value between present ‘goods’ and future ‘goods.’