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

International Social Science Review, Spring-Summer, 2005 by Michael L. Hirsch

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 rules guiding maritime trade (p. 63), and an extraordinarily detailed examination of families as communities of workers and communities of workers as family-like households (p. 85). His exploration for the origins of modern commercial law takes his reader as far back and far away as twelfth-century Florence (p. 151) and sixteenth-century Genoa (p. 177). The comparative multi-causal exploration in which we find Weber engaged demonstrates that the meticulous researcher who produced his much more familiar works, such as The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1958), was strongly entrenched within him at a very young age.

The challenges this work presents to the reader are similar to the challenges posed by Weber's other published works. Weber introduces the reader to people, places, and things of importance that have become obscured by time. His use of other language terms such as commenda(1) (p. 63), patronus navis (2) (p. 65) and traetator(3) (p. 67) can discombobulate the reader already destabilized by the myriad of new discoveries placed on the page. These challenges, however, are the strengths of Weber's work. He will share what he discovers and masters and expects us to master the material as well.

To his credit, Kaelber leaves these challenges in place. This is a fully potent Weber delivered to the awaiting reader. Though the footnotes have been translated to allow access to mono-lingual scholars, the rest of the text stands as Weber would have it stand in German. It is robust and complete. It is Weber as he would greet us today, uncompromising in his quest for truth.

When this reviewer finished reading the work, I again thought back to my early introduction to Weber in an undergraduate classroom with Dr. Murvar, barely able to contain his passion for the knowledge he was imparting to us ninerteen- and twenty-year-olds. Now, much older myself, I am thankful to have studied under a person so inspired by Weber, that I undertook the reading of this recently translated and published text. I am thankful for Murvar's tutelage that brought me to this point and thankful to Kaelber for reawakening my appreciation of Weber's work by his skillful translation.

Detracting from an otherwise strong piece of scholarship is the foreword by series editor Charles Lemert. In discussing his personal discovery of Weber's work, he compares the pleasure he derived from reading Weber to the stimulation of a female erogenous zone. This distasteful commentary mars an otherwise valuable contribution to sociology provided to us by Kaelber.