Achille Loria graduated in law in 1877 and taught political economy in various Italian universities. In 1903, he moved from the University of Padua to the University of Torino, where he spent thirty years directing the Laboratory of Political Economy as the deputy of Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961), an economist who later would become President of the Italian Republic. Positivist and, in particular, Darwinist in education, Loria tried to apply historical materialism to the study of law, society, and economics, but always refuted orthodox Marxist thinking and the theory of labor value. For this, he came under severe attack from official Marxists and from Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) in person.

During his lifetime, scholars considered Loria an outstanding economist, something of an Italian Marx, but with a clear ...