SOCIAL COMPTABILISM By ERNEST SOLVAY THE CHEQUE AND CLEARING SERVICE in the Austrian Postal Savings Bank PROPOSED LAW laid before the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium By Prof. HECTOR DENIS 1896 (Extract from the _Annals of the Institute of Social Sciences_) BRUSSELS AT THE INSTITUTE 11, RUE RAVENSTEIN, 11 1897 Bruxelles.--Imp. écon., N. VANDERSYPEN, rue de Trèves, 38. SOCIAL COMPTABILISM ITS PRINCIPLE AND GROUND OF EXISTENCE THEORY OF THE MEASURE OF TRANSACTIONAL VALUE By ERNEST SOLVAY Would it be possible, in a society constituted as ours is, to replace the agency of money by another agency which would have its advantages without its inconveniences, and which could be considered as theoretically perfect,--in other words would it be possible to replace the agency of money by a system which would be the final expression of possible improvement in this matter and the definitive point to which social economics ought necessarily to tend? This is the subject which we propose to consider. The paper _Social comptabilism and proportionalism_[A] which was the starting point of the Institute of Social Sciences of Brussels, was necessarily done in a premature fashion, the subject being regarded from too general a point of view, so as to be harmful to a true explanation of «comptabilism» properly so called. It laid itself open to criticism and lays itself open still; it does not satisfy all those who wish to go deeply into the question. On these accounts we deem it our duty, after what the Institute has already published with reference to it, to return again to the subject, limiting ourselves to purely monetary and account-keeping grounds, and an exclusively theoretical explanation of the conception which, connected as it is with the inductive researches of our fellow workers we have submitted to their consideration. In the first place let us examine into the use of money in society, and to whom it is of use; we will next consider if it is indispensable. Money presents itself to us as being an indispensable instrument for effecting transactions which are not mere acts of barter, and it presents itself also as having rendered possible,--and this is of capital importance as the sequel will show,--the registering, the writing down or account-keeping of the transactions, if one may so say, which barter did not permit.