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Warenkunde/Merceologia:
The unifying Ground for Economie and
Natural Sciences
This paper is a tribute to the great Polish eeonomist As a matter of fact, the quality of the final commo-
Oskar LANGE (1904 - 1965), who most understood dities, their com merce, conservation, deterioration and
the importanee of the natural basis of the economie the act itself of "consumption" - Le. the field of
studies. interest of Warenkunde/Merceologia - depend on how
the commodities are manufactured. The Warenkunde
1 The integration of natural and economie accountaneies Scientists are therefore entitled to try the integration
The economie science studies the exchange of of the natural and monetary aeeountaneies; this
commodities, Le. of physical goods. Any economie operation is essential in order to assess how the manu-
service - transportation, energy use, manufacturing, facturing processes influence the quality of the commo-
family and community Iife - requires physical goods. dities, and how both the natural and economie resources
However, the economie analysis limits itself to the may be best used.
measure and description of the exchange of commodi-
ties and services that are aceompanied by monetary 2 The structure of the eommodity system
transactions. Any good that cannot be bought or sold Each economie process or cycle may be described as
in exchange of money is out of the domain and interest a flow of matter and energy from the environment to
of economics, although most of the events on earth the environment, according the lines indicated in
and in the human life are not accompanied by such Figure 1.
exchange. This is one of the reasons for the delay or
The economie cycles differ from the "natural" or
failure of economics to deal with the environmental,
ecological ones in that the former "function" with the
food, raw materials and energy crisis, Le. with crisis
addiction of specifically human factors, Iike labor,
due to the scarcity of natura I resources and of the
technology, information, Le. historical experience,
carrying capacity of the environment.
skill and memory. The "capital" may be considered
A better description of what really happens in the
as a "value", or measure, of the amount of such techno-
economie world requires the integration of the
logyand information factors.
monetary accountancy, Le. the description of the flow
In the manufacturing activities, the field more familiar
of money among economie subjects, with a "natural"
to the studies of Warenkunde/Merceologia, each process
accountancy, Le. with a description of the flow of
draws from the environments air and water (at no cost) ,
matter and energy through a production process, a
that may be considered as free environmental commo-
town, a territory, a nation.
dities, and also "economie" commodities and raw
The physical flow of commodities was in the mind
materials, such as stones, minerals, energy sourees,
of the proponents of any interindustry accountancy,
vegetai and animai resources, for which a price is paid to
from QUESNAY in the XVIII century, to early Soviet
a "owner" of such environmental goods.
planners in the 20's, to LEONTI EF and his followers.
Each process generates the required commodities
However, the description of the matter and energy
(economie "goods"), that are "sold" to other processes
flow through a national economy seemed - as it is -
or to services and families, i.e. to the activities of "con-
an enormous task. So the econ'omic analysts turned
sumption".
to the description only of the exchange associated
with the monetary trllnsactions, and this is the state Together with the economie commodities or "goods",
of the art in the community of economists. each process co generates residuals and wastes that may
In' the same time, and independently, natura I be considered as commodities themselves. If they are
scientists - in particular the ecologists - have developed discharged (or "sold", at no price and no costI as such
quite satisfaetory descriptions of the physical exchangelt in the environment, they represent "negative eommo-
in the domain of their interests: a lake, the sila, a forest, dities", or "bads".
an animai community, the entire planet. Many scientists In many cases, however, such residuals may be
in Warenkunde/Merceologia, in the recent decades, have treated in order to recover stili useful materials, or to
become increa'singly interested at the description of the decrease the negative environmental impact. They may
natural and physical flow (of matter and energy) in the therefore be considered as inputs for some other process
economie processes and phenomena, and have accumu- of treatment or recycling.
lated a considerable analytical experience and ex- A "recycling" process, on its part, requires air, and
perimental data. water, and chemical commodities, and produces raw
28 Forum Ware, 2., (1/2), 28-30 (1981) FORUM WARE 9(1981) Nr.1-2
LABOR, TECHNOLOGY.INFORMATION
ENVI RONMENTAL
ECONOMI C RECYCLlNG
COMMODITIES
/
Figure 1 The environment/commodities system.
~ zw e-..I
z:>a:Oz I- z(,l-
~
>- o(,l
l- >
zCla:(,l
o ww
wo(w
X
(,l
a:
materials or commodities, and again other residuals
w :E z
w O
a::E
:.::
tI)'"
ti)
::l
ti) ::::i
Oi=
ti)ti) ti)
and wastes.
Finally, the analysis of the- physical flows in the "con-
sumption" process shows that each final commodity
is transformed, with generation of stili other residuals
and wastes.
Many commodities are embodied or immobilized for
some time within each production or consumption ENVI RONMENT
RECYCLlNG
3 A five-year pian of work in Warenkunde/Merceologia
A better description of the physical, or "natural",
exchanges in a process or in an economy is very im- STOCKS
portant for the solution of many present day problems,
such as the environmental impact assessment of new pro-
I MPORTS
duction plants or processes, and the development of the
so-called non-waste technologies.
An integration between the physical and monetary Figure 2. Square matrix representation of the inputl
flows in an economy may help to better understand output flows from the natura I environment, to pro-
some concepts related to the "use value", or more duction, consumption, wastes, and back to the natural
generally to the "value" of the commodities. For in- environment. Various "parallel" matrices must be
stance it gives a quantitative meaning to concepts as the prepared for the flows in weight units, energy units,
"environmental cost" of a commodity (e.g. the amount money units.
of residualsassociated with the production of a weight
unit of such commodity), the energy or the water cost
of a commodity, the "energy content" of the national the flow of matter dnd energy, including the priceless
product (GNPl. the productivity of a manufacturing flows from, and to, the environment. The experience
process, and so ono of the work on a "Process Encyclopedia", carried by
The term "commodity" includes also the economic Statistics Canada, in Ottawa, may be useful.
services (e.g. transportation, the heating of buildings, the (2) It is necessary to give reasonable definitions of a
lighting of the officesl. ali associated with the use of "process" and of its physical boundaries. The process
physical commodities. I will indicate, for discussion, analysis may be carried for an household, a building,
few lines of a work that could be carried, through an a manufacturing plant, a city, an agricultural field, a
international collaborative effort, in the next, say, five nation.
years. A review of the results could be presented in a At a regional level, the watershed seems the best terri·
future international conference on Warenkunde/Mer- tory unit for an economlc-ecological accountancy.
ceologia. (3) The flows of matter and energy (and m~ney) de-
(1) For each process it is necessary to collect data on scribed in Figure 1 must be written in a form tractable