During the years 1857 to 1860 he published Kritik des Entwurfs eines Handelsgesetzbuchs für die Preussischen Staaten and Gutachten über den Entwurf eines Deutschen Handelsgesetzbuchs nach den Beschlüssen Zweiter Lesung, which at once attracted attention to him as a critical jurist.

He then began the great work which occupied him during the remainder of his life, but which he did not live to complete, namely, Das Handbuch des Handelsrechts, Erlangen, 1864–68.

This is the work with which his fame as a historical jurist is identified, it being recognized as a masterly presentation of the general history of commercial law.

In the late 1880s, Goldschmidt was the doctoral adviser to Max Weber, who was awarded his doctoral degree in 1889 for his dissertation "Die Entwickelung des Solidarhaftprinzips und des Sondervermögens der offenen Handelsgesellschaft aus den Haushalts- und Gewerbegemeinschaften in den italienischen Städten".

1887; Die Haftpflicht der Genossen und das Umlageverfahren, Berlin, 1888; System des Handelsrechts, Stuttgart, 1887, 4th ed., 1891.