Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk's "Capital and Interest" Is an Elaborate Criticism of All Earlier Theories of Interest

The third of the great Austrians who form the core of the Austrian school is Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914), perhaps the best known in this country, by reason of his theories regarding interest, and his very brilliant assault on the Marxian system. For our immediate purposes, Böhm-Bawerk is the author of two considerable works, both of which have fortunately been translated, one under the title of Capital and Interest, and the other as The Positive Theory of Capital. The former is an elaborate criticism of all earlier theories of interest, so that the work is in substance a very learned and detailed history of economic doctrine on this one point. This work is wholly destructive and critical and though it prepares the way for a statement of the author's own views, it does not in fact contain such a statement. It is to its companion work, The Positive Theory of Capital, that we must tum to get Böhm-Bawerk's contribution to Austrian doctrine.

--Alexander Gray, The Development of Economic Doctrine: An Introductory Survey (1931; repr., London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1956), 356.