Commodity

Silo is the ordinary knowledge of the goods .

'Commodity science' is a subject that originally describes the basics of retail . It goes back to the Göttingen Professor Johann Beckmann (1739-1811), who coined the term "Waarenkunde" and including the new and previously unknown goods (eg. As from other continents) explained and publicize wanted later than grocery referred were. At Beckmann, the area of responsibility of goods science was: (1.) the systematic organization of the goods, (2.) the identification and testing of the goods, (3.) the determination of the origin of the goods and the most important markets, (4.) the description the manufacturing process, (5.) the explanation of the different values of the types and qualities, (6.) the determination of the importance of the goods in economic life.

Development of the subject

Title page of Johann Beckmann's Preparation for Waarenkunde (1793).

The knowledge of goods was initially given special attention in the area of trade, because knowledge of the objects of trade ( merchandise ) was of essential importance for the trader's economic success. Accordingly, there was the formation of special goods customers ( groups of goods , e.g. food or textiles) who were also taught in vocational schools for merchants.

The commercial properties encyclopedic descriptive goods customer is different from the goods teach in their alignment with use value. In his 'System des Handels, 1817', Johann Michael Leuchs (1763–1836) divided commodity knowledge from actual trade. He distinguished in the first band: " eatables ", " merchandise in apparel ," " Gemächlichkeitswaaren ", " goods for production ."

With the spread of the range of goods and the formation of brands , goods knowledge came into the interest of marketing industrially produced goods (economic goods theory or goods management theory, product marketing and goods sales knowledge). In marketing , aspects of general product knowledge gain importance, for example the life cycles of individual products on the consumer goods market, their obsolescence or the differentiation of the product range according to the level of demand in product group management .

Since in the affluent societies, goods not only serve to directly satisfy needs, but also to cultivate lifestyles or to express one's own individuality, goods also come into the focus of cultural interest and sociology . Here, for example, the cultural-industrial questions are of interest , why goods under American brands, such as Coca-Cola or McDonald's, shape consumption styles worldwide and displace national cultures and, in a global dimension, the ethical efforts to promote fair trade and sustainable consumption .

Under the influence of resource scarcity and environmental problems, the biological-ecological aspect of the goods was of particular importance. In this way, the resource consumption of individual goods can be calculated and defined as an " ecological backpack ". This means that fewer environmentally harmful variants can be identified than alternatives. The Integrated Product Policy (IPP) has set itself the task of minimizing the environmental impact in the life cycle of the goods . Sustainability is therefore an essential aspect of commodity science and the theory of commodities, a fundamental subject for sustainable management.

The encyclopaedic-systematic knowledge of goods developed in an effort to develop a professional epistemology to the generalism of science and the teaching of goods on the basis of general systems theory , theoretical biology ( Ludwig v. Bertalanffy , 1901–1972) and bioeconomics ( Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen , 1906– 1994). What is essential is the fusion of thermodynamics, evolutionary biology and economics.

As a model, the physical economy ( Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , 1646–1716) had a lot of economic influence until the end of the 18th century. Although the basics of the theory of goods were already suggested in the early 19th century to include a real economic discipline as one of the three main sciences, economics has not yet incorporated such a teaching into itself. Since the middle of the twentieth century, the abandonment of theory in the encyclopedia of goods science has been followed by new approaches to the logic of science, from which the economic goods theory emerged first in the business context, then the bio-economic orientation on the basis of natural science and systems theory.

Distribution and maintenance of the knowledge of goods and the theory of goods are quite different around the world. While the last chair for goods science (Handelshochschule Leipzig) in Germany was abolished in 1991, goods science is intensively cultivated on an academic level in Japan, Poland, Italy and other countries. The technological orientation of goods science (University for World Trade in Vienna) was initially in the encyclopedic tradition of natural history. In keeping with the natural science orientation, the integration subject “Biology and Commodity Teaching” (teaching post) was created in Austria from 1978 on, with additional consideration of social and ecological aspects. In Austria's commercial schools, “biology, ecology and theory of goods” are taught integratively, whereby - with a scientific approach - the goods are comprehensively understood as “the economic object”. In the curriculum reform of 2014 at the commercial schools in Austria, the theory of goods with the intention of natural economics became the model of the subject, renamed "Applied Natural Sciences". The institute responsible for technology and commodity science was closed in 2012 by the decision-makers at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

In colloquial language, the term " goods " is sometimes used as a synonym for good or product , and there is no comparable generic term in English. The collective term " commodities " is limited to homogeneous commodities. Commodity science and commodity theory claim a comprehensive definition of “commodity”: goods are objects produced by people for the purpose of satisfying needs, which are traded with economic interests and ultimately used or consumed, with the process from production to for disposal interacts with society and the biosphere (social or human ecology).

Subject boundaries and disciplines

The Silo describes each were shaped objects, as more value-free structure knowledge .

The merchandise theory serves as a theoretical framework for merchandise science. In doing so, it deals with the functions of the commodity and differentiates between the natural value (physical resources) and the social value (use values and exchange values) of commodities. The theory of commodities concentrates on the actual biological and cultural purpose of the commodity to satisfy needs.

In the commercial interests of marketing and procurement, merchandise management is based on needs, the exchange values of trade and consumption styles. Goods sales customers and consumer education are ambivalent to one another in the opposite direction.

The knowledge interest of commodity science understands the commodity as an economic object as a whole. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906–1994) called this approach of connecting the economy and its environment “ bioeconomics ”. According to Artur Kutzelnigg (1904–1984), goods as a scientific term should be viewed as a generic term that includes everything that is named in sub-areas as product, product, material, supply item, commodity, commodity, good, etc.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Johann Beckmann: Preparation for the knowledge of goods, or for knowledge of the most distinguished foreign goods, Göttingen 1793. [1]
↑ Johann Michael Leuchs: Systems of Commerce, Volume 1, Bürgerliche Handelswirtschaft, Nuremberg 1817 [2]

[1] Johann Beckmann: Preparation for the knowledge of goods, or for knowledge of the most distinguished foreign goods, Göttingen 1793. [1]

[2] Johann Michael Leuchs: Systems of Commerce, Volume 1, Bürgerliche Handelswirtschaft, Nuremberg 1817 [2]

Commodity

contents

Development of the subject

Subject boundaries and disciplines

further reading

Web links

Individual evidence