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FRIEDRICH LIST (1789-1846)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 777 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRIEDRICH See also:LIST (1789-1846)  , See also:German economist, was See also:born at See also:Reutlingen, See also:Wurttemberg, on the 6th of See also:August 1789 . Unwilling to follow the occupation of his See also:father, who was a prosperous See also:tanner, he became a clerk in the public service, and by 1816 had risen to the See also:post of ministerial under-secretary . In 1817 he was appointed See also:professor of See also:administration and politics at the university of See also:Tubingen, but the fall of the See also:ministry in 1818 compelled him to resign . As a See also:deputy to the Wurttemberg chamber, he was active in advocating administrative reforms . He was eventually expelled from the chamber and in See also:April 1822 sentenced to ten months' imprisonment with hard labour in the fortress of Asperg . He escaped to See also:Alsace, and after visiting See also:France and See also:England returned in 1824 to finish his See also:sentence, and was released on undertaking to emigrate to See also:America . There he resided from 1825 to 1832, first engaging in farming and afterwards in journalism . It was in America that he gathered from a study of See also:Alexander See also:Hamilton's See also:work the See also:inspiration which made him an economist of his pronounced " See also:National " views . The See also:discovery of See also:coal on some See also:land which he had acquired made him financially See also:independent, and he became See also:United States See also:consul 'at See also:Leipzig in 1832 . He strongly advocated the See also:extension of the railway See also:system in See also:Germany, and the See also:establishment of the See also:Zollverein was due largely to his See also:enthusiasm and ardour . His latter days were darkened by many misfortunes; he lost much of his See also:American See also:property in a See also:financial crisis, See also:ill-See also:health also overtook him, and he brought his See also:life to an end by his own See also:hand on the 3oth of See also:November 1846 . See also:List holds historically one of the highest places in economic thought as applied to See also:practical See also:objects .

His See also:

principal work is entitled Das Nationale System der Politischen Okonomie (1841) . Though his practical conclusions were different from those of See also:Adam See also:Muller (1779-1829), he was largely influenced not only by Hamilton but also by the See also:general mode of thinking of that writer, and by his strictures on the See also:doctrine of Adam See also:Smith . It was particularly against the See also:cosmopolitan principle in the See also:modern economical system that he protested, and against the See also:absolute doctrine of See also:free See also:trade, which was in See also:harmony with that principle . He gave prominence to the national See also:idea, and insisted on the See also:special requirements of each nation according to its circumstances and especially to the degree of its development . He refused to Smith's system the See also:title of the See also:industrial, which he thought more appropriate to the See also:mercantile system, and designated the former as " the See also:exchange-value system." He denied the See also:parallelism asserted by Smith between the economic conduct proper to an individual and to a nation, and held that the immediate private See also:interest of the See also:separate members of the community would not See also:lead to the highest See also:good of the whole . That the nation was an existence, See also:standing between the individual and humanity, and formed into a unity by its See also:language, See also:manners, See also:historical development, culture and constitution . That this unity must be the first See also:condition of the See also:security, wellbeing, progress and See also:civilization of the individual; and private economic interests, like all others, must be subordinated to the See also:maintenance, completion and strengthening of the See also:nationality . The nation having a continuous life, its true See also:wealth must consist—and this is List's fundamental doctrine—not in the quantity of exchange-values which it possesses, but in the full and many-sided development of its productive See also:powers . Its economic See also:education should be more important than the immediate See also:production of values, and it might be right that one See also:generation should See also:sacrifice its gain and enjoyment to secure the strength and skill of the future . In the See also:sound and normal condition of a nation which has attained economic maturity, the three productive powers of See also:agriculture, manufactures and See also:commerce should be alike See also:developed . But the two latter factors are See also:superior in importance, as exercising a more effective and fruitful See also:influence on the whole culture of the nation, as well as on its See also:independence . See also:Navigation, See also:railways, all higher technical arts, connect themselves specially with these factors; whilst in a purely agricultural See also:state there is a tendency to stagnation .

But for the growth of the higher forms of See also:

industry all countries are not adapted—only those of the temperate zones, whilst the torrid regions have a natural See also:monopoly in the production of certain raw materials; and thus between these two See also:groups of countries a See also:division of labour and See also:confederation of powers spontaneously takes See also:place . List then goes on to explain his theory of the stages of economic development through which the nations of the temperate See also:zone, which are furnished with all the necessary conditions, naturally pass, in advancing to their normal economic state . These are (1) See also:pastoral life, (2) agriculture, (3) agriculture united with manufactures; whilst in the final See also:stage agriculture, manufactures and commerce are combined . The economic task of the state is to bring into existence through legislative and administrative See also:action the conditions required for the progress of the nation through these stages . Out of this view arises List's See also:scheme of industrial politics . Every nation, according to him, should begin with free trade, stimulating and improving its agriculture by intercourse with richer and more cultivated nations, importing See also:foreign manufactures and exporting raw products . When it is economically so far advanced that it can manufacture for itself, then a system of See also:protection should be employed to allow the See also:home See also:industries to develop themselves fully, and See also:save them from being overpowered in their earlier efforts by the competition of more matured foreign industries in the home See also:market . When the national industries have grown strong enough no longer to dread this competition, then the highest stage of progress has been reached; free trade should again become the See also:rule, and the nation be thus thoroughly incorporated with the universal industrial See also:union . What a nation loses for a See also:time in exchange values during the protective See also:period she much more than gains in the See also:long run in productive See also:power—the temporary See also:expenditure being strictly analogous, when we place ourselves at the point of view of the life of the nation, to the cost of the industrialeducationof the individual . The practical conclusion which List See also:drew for Germany was that she needed for her economic progress an extended and conveniently bounded territory reaching to the See also:sea-See also:coast both on See also:north and See also:south, and a vigorous expansion of manufactures and commerce, and that the way to the latter See also:lay through judicious protective legislation with a customs union domprising all German lands, and a German marine with a Navigation See also:Act . The national German spirit, striving after independence and power through union, and the national industry, awaking from its lethargy and eager to recover lost ground, were favourable to the success of List's See also:book, and it produced a See also:great sensation . He ably represented the tendencies and demands of his time in his own See also:country; his work had the effect of fixing the See also:attention, not merely of the speculative and See also:official classes, but of practical men generally, on questions of See also:political See also:economy; and his ideas were undoubtedly the economic See also:foundation of modern Germany, as applied by the practical See also:genius of See also:Bismarck .

See See also:

biographies of List by See also:Goldschmidt (See also:Berlin, 1878) and Jentsch (Berlin, 1901), also Fr . List, ein Vorlaufer and ein Opfer See also:fur das Vaterland (Anon., 2 vols., See also:Stuttgart, 1877) ; M . E . Hirst's Life of See also:Friedrich List (See also:London, 1909) contains a bibliography and a reprint of List's Outlines of American Political Economy (1827) .

End of Article: FRIEDRICH LIST (1789-1846)
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