RODBERTUS, Johann Karl.

Zur Erkenntniss unsrer staatswirthschaftlichen Zustände ... Erstes Heft: Fünf Theoreme [all published].

Neubrandenburg and Friedland, G. Barnewitz, 1842. 8vo, pp. viii, 175, [1] errata; small library stamp of the Austrian National Library to the title and p. 175 (deaccession stamp to the final page) and label to the front pastedown; later in the library of Moriz von Kuffner (1854–1939; a Viennese brewer and the first man to climb the Eiger by the north-east ridge); scattered light foxing throughout, but still a good, crisp copy in later boards, the original printed wrappers laid down. First edition of one of Rodbertus’s most important works, containing his critique and development of Ricardian theory.The grandson of J. A. Schlettwein, Rodbertus (1805–1875) is often regarded as the founder of ‘scientific’ socialism. Strongly influenced by Sismondi, he was, like him, a distinguished historian. ‘He drew analogies between modern capitalism and ancient serfdom, and he was the first continental writer to consider explicitly the grievances and claims of the working-classes. For Rodbertus, labour was the only true source of productive wealth. His fundamental proposition, taken from Ricardo, was that the working-classes would always receive only a subsistence wage: the “iron law” of wages. Hence, any growth of national income would inevitably increase the share of rent and profits, whereas the proportion going to wage-earners would fall. This in turn would produce recurrent economic crises as consumption would fail to match output due to lack of demand. Rodbertus may thus be considered as a continental forerunner of underconsumptionist theorists’ (The New Palgrave).‘Rodbertus’ analytic schema can be most briefly and at the same time most tellingly described in the following way. Fundamentally, and in the same sense as Marx, he was a Ricardian. His analytic effort was an effort to develop Ricardian doctrine in a certain direction and was in essentials parallel to, though different from, Marx’s effort. According to dates of publication, Marx could have derived inspiration from Rodbertus, particularly as regards the unitary conception of all non-wage incomes – Marx’s surplus value and Rodbertus’ “rent” – which is a feature of both schemata’ (Schumpeter, p. 506).Although Engels hotly refuted charges that Marx plagiarised Rodbertus’s ideas, he nevertheless found merit in the Prussian’s writings: ‘For the time when Rodbertus’ Zur Erkenntniss … appeared, it was certainly an important book. His development of Ricardo’s theory of value in that one direction was a very promising beginning. Even if it was new only for him and for Germany, still as a whole, it stands on a par with the achievements of the better ones among his English predecessors’ (from the introduction to the first German translation of Marx’s Misère de la philosophie).Einaudi 4806; Goldsmiths’ 33076; Humpert 8130; Kress C.5941; Menger, col. 309; Stammhammer I, 205.

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