Capital and its Structure First Edition - Ludwig M. Lachmann - Bauman Rare Books

Capital and its Structure

Ludwig M. LACHMANN

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Capital and its Structure

“THE CAPITAL STRUCTURE IS EVER CHANGING. EVERY DAY THE NETWORK OF PLANS IS TORN, EVERY DAY IT IS MENDED ANEW…”: FIRST EDITION OF LACHMANN’S CAPITAL AND ITS STRUCTURE, 1956, WITH THE OWNER SIGNATURE OF COLUMBIA ECONOMIST RAGNAR NURKSE

LACHMANN, Ludwig M. Capital and its Structure. London: G. Bell and Sons, (1956). Octavo, original burgundy cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of this important work of “fundamentalist Austrianism,” with the owner signature of Estonian economist, international policy maker, and Columbia professor, Ragnar Nurkse.

A student and later a colleague of Hayek, German economist Ludwig Lachmann became one of the most important members of the Austrian School during the second half of the 20th century. Lachmann’s understanding of the Austrian School was different from that of many of his peers. He saw the Austrian School as standing in direct opposition to the Neoclassical school, characterizing the Austrian School as “genetic-causal,” or evolutionary, and showing how it relied on neither equilibrium nor perfect knowledge. Lachmann’s brand of “fundamentalist Austrianism” is now seen as the basis for the “radical subjectivist” branch of the Austrian School. Capital and its Structure, one of Lachmann’s earliest writings and arguably his best, argues many of Lachmann’s core beliefs, focusing on capital and its role in the economic theory, the functional economy, and in the trade cycle. Pencil owner signature of Ragnar Nurkse, the distinguished Estonian economist and policy maker who served in a number of critical international finance and economic development roles including in the Financial Section and Economic Intelligence Serve of the League of Nations from 1934 until 1945. Nurske also taught at Columbia from the end of the War almost until his death in 1959, spending sabbaticals at Oxford and Geneva. His economics and policy writings are credited with helping in the transition from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. Occasional pencil annotations.

Book about-fine, scarce dust jacket near-fine with only mild toning to extremities. A handsome copy with an interesting association.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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