The volume under review is a collection of Schumacher’s writings and speeches, pains¬takingly compiled and edited by a colleague. Schumacher was deeply involved in two areas during his life: these were energy and management control of a large corporate body. The first four chapters of the book deal with the energy crisis and the last two with the question of public ownership and controls.
Schumacher argues that the present economic theories do not make a distinction bet-ween an extractive industry and a secondary industry. The extractive industry, particular¬ly that which is related to non-renewable energy sources, has to be understood in terms of husbandry of irreplaceable resources. This factor would not make sense in an economic analysis which looks for the profit impact from temporary and fortuitous market factors only. On the contrary, the production policy of extractive operations must be largely insulated from the impact of market forces, concentrating more on ensuring that there is no waste of resources—a loss which is irretrievable.