Giorgio Nebbia *
Warenkunde/Merceologia:
The unifying Ground for Economie and
Natural Sciences
This paper is a tribute to the great Polish eeonomist
Oskar LANGE (1904 - 1965), who most understood
the importanee of the natural basis of the economie
studies.
1 The integration of natural and economie accountaneies
The economie science studies the exchange of
commodities, Le. of physical goods. Any economie
service - transportation, energy use, manufacturing,
family and community Iife - requires physical goods.
However, the economie analysis limits itself to the
measure and description of the exchange of commodi-
ties and services that are aceompanied by monetary
transactions. Any good that cannot be bought or sold
in exchange of money is out of the domain and interest
of economics, although most of the events on earth
and in the human life are not accompanied by such
exchange. This is one of the reasons for the delay or
failure of economics to deal with the environmental,
food, raw materials and energy crisis, Le. with crisis
due to the scarcity of natura I resources and of the
carrying capacity of the environment.
A better description of what really happens in the
economie world requires the integration of the
monetary accountancy, Le. the description of the flow
of money among economie subjects, with a "natural"
accountancy, Le. with a description of the flow of
matter and energy through a production process, a
town, a territory, a nation.
The physical flow of commodities was in the mind
of the proponents of any interindustry accountancy,
from QUESNAY in the XVIII century, to early Soviet
planners in the 20's, to LEONTI EF and his followers.
However, the description of the matter and energy
flow through a national economy seemed - as it is -
an enormous task. So the econ'omic analysts turned
to the description only of the exchange associated
with the monetary trllnsactions, and this is the state
of the art in the community of economists.
In' the same time, and independently, natura I
scientists - in particular the ecologists - have developed
quite satisfaetory descriptions of the physical exchangelt
in the domain of their interests: a lake, the sila, a forest,
an animai community, the entire planet. Many scientists
in Warenkunde/Merceologia, in the recent decades, have
become increa'singly interested at the description of the
natural and physical flow (of matter and energy) in the
economie processes and phenomena, and have accumu-
lated a considerable analytical experience and ex-
perimental data.
* Giorgio NEBBIA, Istituto di Merceologia,
Università, 1-70122 Bari, Italy
28 Forum Ware, 2.,
As a matter of fact, the quality of the final commo-
dities, their com merce, conservation, deterioration and
the act itself of "consumption" - Le. the field of
interest of Warenkunde/Merceologia - depend on how
the commodities are manufactured. The Warenkunde
Scientists are therefore entitled to try the integration
of the natural and monetary aeeountaneies; this
operation is essential in order to assess how the manu-
facturing processes influence the quality of the commo-
dities, and how both the natural and economie resources
may be best used.
2 The structure of the eommodity system
Each economie process or cycle may be described as
a flow of matter and energy from the environment to
the environment, according the lines indicated in
Figure 1.
The economie cycles differ from the "natural" or
ecological ones in that the former "function" with the
addiction of specifically human factors, Iike labor,
technology, information, Le. historical experience,
skill and memory. The "capital" may be considered
as a "value", or measure, of the amount of such techno-
logyand information factors.
In the manufacturing activities, the field more familiar
to the studies of Warenkunde/Merceologia, each process
draws from the environments air and water (at no cost) ,
that may be considered as free environmental commo-
dities, and also "economie" commodities and raw
materials, such as stones, minerals, energy sourees,
vegetai and animai resources, for which a price is paid to
a "owner" of such environmental goods.
Each process generates the required commodities
(economie "goods"), that are "sold" to other processes
or to services and families, i.e. to the activities of "con-
sumption".
Together with the economie commodities or "goods",
each process co generates residuals and wastes that may
be considered as commodities themselves. If they are
discharged (or "sold", at no price and no costI as such
in the environment, they represent "negative eommo-
dities", or "bads".
In many cases, however, such residuals may be
treated in order to recover stili useful materials, or to
decrease the negative environmental impact. They may
therefore be considered as inputs for some other process
of treatment or recycling.
A "recycling" process, on its part, requires air, and
water, and chemical commodities, and produces raw
(1/2), 28-30 (1981) FORUM WARE 9(1981) Nr.1-2
 LABOR, TECHNOLOGY.INFORMATION

r- - - ---t----- -- ---- -- -- -- - -..,I

I
ENVI RONMENTAL
FREE COMMODITIES

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

process; this is the case of cement and sand, of furni-

tu re, of the books collected in the libraries, of the PROOUCTION
machines, and so ono
A stock reservoir of commodites must therefore be SERVICES ANO
FAMILIES
included in the analysis.

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-
portant for the solution of many present day problems,
such as the environmental impact assessment of new pro-
duction plants or processes, and the development of the
so-called non-waste technologies.
An integration between the physical and monetary
flows in an economy may help to better understand
some concepts related to the "use value", or more
generally to the "value" of the commodities. For in-
stance it gives a quantitative meaning to concepts as the
"environmental cost" of a commodity (e.g. the amount
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
product (GNPl. the productivity of a manufacturing
process, and so ono
The term "commodity" includes also the economic
services (e.g. transportation, the heating of buildings, the
lighting of the officesl. ali associated with the use of
physical commodities. I will indicate, for discussion,
few lines of a work that could be carried, through an
international collaborative effort, in the next, say, five
years. A review of the results could be presented in a
future international conference on Warenkunde/Mer-
ceologia.
(1) For each process it is necessary to collect data on
RECYCLlNG
STOCKS
I MPORTS
Figure 2. Square matrix representation of the inputl
output flows from the natura I environment, to pro-
duction, consumption, wastes, and back to the natural
environment. Various "parallel" matrices must be
prepared for the flows in weight units, energy units,
money units.
the flow of matter dnd energy, including the priceless
flows from, and to, the environment. The experience
of the work on a "Process Encyclopedia", carried by
Statistics Canada, in Ottawa, may be useful.
(2) It is necessary to give reasonable definitions of a
"process" and of its physical boundaries. The process
analysis may be carried for an household, a building,
a manufacturing plant, a city, an agricultural field, a
nation.
At a regional level, the watershed seems the best terri·
tory unit for an economlc-ecological accountancy.
(3) The flows of matter and energy (and m~ney) de-
scribed in Figure 1 must be written in a form tractable

FORUM WARE 9 (19811 Nr.1-2 29

with econometric and mathematical procedures. This
can be done with a square matrix of the type described
in Figure 2.
Different matrices may contain intersectoral exchanges
in weight units, energy units, monetary units. The huge
amount of data require the development of rather
sophisticated mathematical and computational methods.
(4) A preliminary work is required for "the unification
of the definitions of the various activity and environ-
mentaI sectors. The available statistical data must be
elaborated and better statisticaI surveys must be soli-
cited.
(5) The available and future data must be stored in an
international data bank, possibly under the auspicesof
international organizations. The cooperation of UNIDO
30
(United Nations Industriai Development Organization),
and of other United Nations agencies,including UNEP
(United Nations Environment Program) could be soli-
cited.
(6) The project requires the cooperation of scientists
working in different disciplines, in particular in the field
of geography and ecology - more strictly interested at
the description of natural resources and the environ-
ment - and in the field of production engineering and
industriai economics. The scientists in Warenkunde/
Merceologia - commodity and process analysts-
seem however to have a very important and unifying
role in the development of the knowledge necessary
for an economie behavior, taking into account the
physical and natural basis of the economie, natural and
human Iife.
FORUM WARE 9 (1881) Nr.1-2