Key Arguments

• Weber considers the hypothetical of 'heterocephalous and heteronomous enterprises' within a planned economy administered without money, and asks how natural calculation could rationally guide their decisions.
• He states that natural calculation 'finds the limit of its rationality in the problem of imputation, which here does not take the form of a simple accounting ex-post recalculation, but rather that of the much-disputed form that it assumes in the “doctrine of marginal utility.”'
• For employment of means of production to be 'placed on a rational and permanent basis', natural calculation 'would have to establish “value indices” for the individual objects that would have to assume the function of “balancing items” in contemporary calculations.'
• He then underlines the difficulties: these indices would need to be 'developed and verified' both 'for enterprises differentiated by location' and 'integrated with respect to “social utility,” that is (current and future) consumption need.'
• Weber criticises the optimistic belief that 'if only the problem of a moneyless economy were resolutely confronted, a system of calculation would “be quickly found,” or rather, be quickly invented,' insisting that this is a 'basic' problem of 'full socialisation' of all kinds.
• He draws a strong conclusion: 'in any case one cannot talk of a rational “planned economy” so long as, at the one decisive point, no means for the purely rational design of a “plan” is known.' This links the feasibility of rational planning directly to solving the imputation/calculation problem.
• He also notes that the difficulties for natural calculation increase further when considering location decisions—whether an enterprise should be sited here or elsewhere to best meet a group’s needs—underlining the multi‑dimensional nature of the imputation problem.

Source Quotes

The question would be the following: How does one find out at what point in an enterprise such measures should probably be introduced, because exactly at this location there are persisting irrationalities that have to be removed? Exact enquiry along these lines presents problems for natural accounting that are not encountered by a reestimate on the basis of historical costs using monetary calculation.) Natural calculation as the basis of enterprise accounting (where heterocephalous and heteronomous enterprises might be conceivable as part of the administration of goods production in a planned economy) finds the limit of its rationality in the problem of imputation, which here does not take the form of a simple accounting ex-post recalculation, but rather that of the much-disputed form that it assumes in the “doctrine of marginal utility.” For the employment of means of production to be placed on a rational and permanent basis, natural calculation would have to establish “value indices” for the individual objects that would have to assume the function of “balancing items” in contemporary calculations.

Exact enquiry along these lines presents problems for natural accounting that are not encountered by a reestimate on the basis of historical costs using monetary calculation.) Natural calculation as the basis of enterprise accounting (where heterocephalous and heteronomous enterprises might be conceivable as part of the administration of goods production in a planned economy) finds the limit of its rationality in the problem of imputation, which here does not take the form of a simple accounting ex-post recalculation, but rather that of the much-disputed form that it assumes in the “doctrine of marginal utility.” For the employment of means of production to be placed on a rational and permanent basis, natural calculation would have to establish “value indices” for the individual objects that would have to assume the function of “balancing items” in contemporary calculations. It would then need to be seen how they could be developed and verified: on the one hand, for enterprises differentiated by location; on the other, integrated with respect to “social utility,” that is (current and future) consumption need.

For the employment of means of production to be placed on a rational and permanent basis, natural calculation would have to establish “value indices” for the individual objects that would have to assume the function of “balancing items” in contemporary calculations. It would then need to be seen how they could be developed and verified: on the one hand, for enterprises differentiated by location; on the other, integrated with respect to “social utility,” that is (current and future) consumption need. Nothing is gained here by assuming that if only the problem of a moneyless economy were resolutely confronted, a system of calculation would “be quickly found,” or rather, be quickly invented.

It would then need to be seen how they could be developed and verified: on the one hand, for enterprises differentiated by location; on the other, integrated with respect to “social utility,” that is (current and future) consumption need. Nothing is gained here by assuming that if only the problem of a moneyless economy were resolutely confronted, a system of calculation would “be quickly found,” or rather, be quickly invented. The problem is one that is basic to “full socialisation” of all kinds, and in any case one cannot talk of a rational “planned economy” so long as, at the one decisive point, no means for the purely rational design of a “plan” is known.

Nothing is gained here by assuming that if only the problem of a moneyless economy were resolutely confronted, a system of calculation would “be quickly found,” or rather, be quickly invented. The problem is one that is basic to “full socialisation” of all kinds, and in any case one cannot talk of a rational “planned economy” so long as, at the one decisive point, no means for the purely rational design of a “plan” is known. The difficulties for natural calculation are only increased if one seeks to ascertain whether a given enterprise dedicated to the production of particular goods should, rationally, be located exactly here, or instead (always considering the matter in terms of meeting the needs of a given human group) at another possible site.

The problem is one that is basic to “full socialisation” of all kinds, and in any case one cannot talk of a rational “planned economy” so long as, at the one decisive point, no means for the purely rational design of a “plan” is known. The difficulties for natural calculation are only increased if one seeks to ascertain whether a given enterprise dedicated to the production of particular goods should, rationally, be located exactly here, or instead (always considering the matter in terms of meeting the needs of a given human group) at another possible site. These difficulties loom yet larger if we consider whether

Key Concepts

• Natural calculation as the basis of enterprise accounting (where heterocephalous and heteronomous enterprises might be conceivable as part of the administration of goods production in a planned economy) finds the limit of its rationality in the problem of imputation
• For the employment of means of production to be placed on a rational and permanent basis, natural calculation would have to establish “value indices” for the individual objects that would have to assume the function of “balancing items” in contemporary calculations.
• It would then need to be seen how they could be developed and verified: on the one hand, for enterprises differentiated by location; on the other, integrated with respect to “social utility,” that is (current and future) consumption need.
• Nothing is gained here by assuming that if only the problem of a moneyless economy were resolutely confronted, a system of calculation would “be quickly found,” or rather, be quickly invented.
• The problem is one that is basic to “full socialisation” of all kinds, and in any case one cannot talk of a rational “planned economy” so long as, at the one decisive point, no means for the purely rational design of a “plan” is known.
• The difficulties for natural calculation are only increased if one seeks to ascertain whether a given enterprise dedicated to the production of particular goods should, rationally, be located exactly here, or instead (always considering the matter in terms of meeting the needs of a given human group) at another possible site.

Context

Final paragraphs of §12, where Weber explicitly connects the inherent limits of natural accounting to the broader socialist calculation debate, arguing that without a substitute for money‑based imputation, rational planned economy is impossible.