Weber, Max. The History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages: The First Complete English Edition of Weber's Prelude to the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Economy and Society.

• Author: Hirsch, Michael L.
• Position: Book Review

Weber, Max. The History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages: The First Complete English Edition of Weber's Prelude to The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Economy and Society. Roman & Littlefield, 2003. 216 pp. Cloth, $35.00.

As an undergraduate and master's-degree student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I was fortunate to study classical theory under the supervision of the late Dr. Vatro Murvar. Murvar was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina and moved to the United States as a young man. He was so enamored with the work of Max Weber that he learned German in order to read Weber's works in the original language. His passion for Weber's works infused our undergraduate exploration of theory as well as our graduate study of the phenomenon of revolution.

For Weberian scholars such as Murvar, The History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages will be received as a heaven-sent gift. This short treatise, an extension of Weber's dissertation, has been skillfully translated by Lutz Kaelber of the University of Vermont, and allows us insight into the works of the early Weber.

Kaelber begins his work with a lengthy introduction that speaks to Weber's life and works. The importance of this translation is set against a backdrop of non-information, partial information, or misinformation in publications about Weber and his work. In a manner reminiscent of the scholarship of Weber himself, Kaelber extensively documents what has been said, correcting numerous misinterpretations and misstatements in print about the early Weber.

Kaelber discusses Weber's early professional ambivalence, how he sought both legal and business positions before settling into the academy. We learn of the evolution of the dissertation topic, and see Weber's use of the comparative method as coming to him from his dissertation advisor, Levin Goldschmidt (p. 6).

The uninformed might think that the emergence of commercial law would be easy to discern. Certainly there must be a clear starting point to something as starkly mundane as a secular business contract. What we learn from Weber, however, is that what may now appear as discreet and obvious (commercial partnerships) emerged slowly from traditions and relationships as dissimilar as they are similar to the arrangements (contractual obligations) we now take for granted.

In his search for the basis of modern commercial law, Weber guides his reader through early Roman law (p. 53), the traditions and...