MEMORANDUM

invalidate the second part of my analysis devoted to the changes of the marginal
productivities. My conclusions still hold in relation to the majority of prices which are
proportional to the marginal productivities. Indeed, I would be very interested to have
your further opinion on this point. I think it would be interesting to drop the
assumption of a purely circular arrangement of the elements and investigate the more
general cases. I feel unable to accept your kind proposal to publish your version of my
article.
With many thanks and best regards.
Sincerely yours, W. Leontief.”
The section of the paper rewritten by Frisch was returned. 211 That finished it. No paper
was published and Leontief’s careful formulation suggesting an interest in a further
dialogue with Frisch was not heeded. Frisch was irritated over Leontief’s refusal of
adhering to his advice about notation and other matters and would have done better if had
left to Leontief to decide how to acknowledge help from the editor.
Later in the year Frisch brought up the incident in correspondence with Schumpeter: 212
“Dear Schumpeter,
With regard to the Leontief case I know that you had recommended it for publication
in the Economic Journal. I think I commit no indiscretion by saying the Keynes told me
the whole story during my visit to Cambridge. Keynes was very uncomfortable about the
matter, but felt that he had to turn the paper down. I am convinced he did the right thing.
It would have been a scandal for any scientific journal to have that paper appear. I think
you have judged the paper only by the introduction which was – from the point of view
of style and presentation – quite well written. If you had worked all the mathematics
through carefully as I did, I am sure you would have been entirely of my opinion. (…) I
spent several days on the paper, suggesting to Leontief what he could do in order to
bring the paper into order. … Leontief made a few minor modifications, but not the
fundamental ones which were necessary in order to put the matter straight. … I again
spent several days on the paper, this time actually indicating in more detail what had to
be changed. (…) The final result was that Leontief found he could not accept to have the
paper appear in this form, because, as he said, too much of it was now due to me.”
211 The handwritten manuscript was found in 2013 in the basement of Frisch’s Institute (now
Department of Economics, University of Oslo) in immaculate condition after crossing the Atlantic
twice in 1934 followed by eighty years in cold storage.
212 Frisch to J.A. Schumpeter, 6 June 1934; 19 November 1934. Schumpeter to Frisch, 2 November
1934.
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