Profile Major Works Resources

Friedrich List, 1789-1846.

Portrait of F.List


Friedrich List was a nationalist/romantic critic of economic theory and one of the forefathers of the German Historical School.

Born in Reutlingen, the son of a tanner, Friedrich List followed a career as an clerk, accountant and bureaucrat in the Kingdom of Württemberg, rising quickly in the administrative ranks and eventually gaining the ear of influential politicians.  Despite his lack of formal education, Friedrich List was appointed professor of cameralistics at the University of Tübingen in 1817, but lost his job in 1819, when his ministerial patrons lost theirs. He never regained a teaching post.

List promptly entered politics, and became a liberal member of the Württemburg legislature.  On the chamber floor, List was an advocate of the customs union but even more vocal on administrative reforms.  But his political views ruffled feathers, and in 1822, List was expelled from the chamber, and put on trial on charges of sedition.  List escaped from Württemburg before the sentence could be implemented.  List subsequently wandered around, spending time in Strasbourg, Baden, Paris, London and Basel.  List was re-captured while on a family visit to Stuttgart in 1824. List eventually reached an agreement with the authorities, was went into exile in the United States in 1825.

After arriving in the United States, List worked as a journalist for a Germany-language newspaper in Pennsylvania for several years. He came under the influence of protectionists of the "American System", like Henry Clay and the Careys.  List soon shifted his earlier economic views away from free trade, and published a local tract (in English) in 1827 that was well-received.

Friedrich List returned to Germany in 1834, in the capacity of US consul in Leipzig (Saxony).  List continue writing and promoting his ideas. List was an enthusiastic supporter and one of the main architects of the German customs union (Zollverein) and an early enthusiast and advocate for the establishment of railroads throughout Germany.  His own involvement in railroad schemes in Saxony, however, ruined him financially. List's death in 1846 was an apparent suicide.

Friedrich List is best known for his The National System of Political Economy (1841).  It was written against the free-trade doctrines that permeated Classical economics. However, List's thesis was not merely a polemical defense of protectionism.  List couched his argument on the basis of his analysis of economics, which stressed political factors - notably, the "nation" - in economics. List argued that it was the government's responsibility to foster the "productive powers" of a nation and, once these were in place, then free trade could ensue, but not before. This is akin to the modern "infant industry" argument for protection. Also relevantly, List developed a theory of economic "stages" which was to serve as a blueprint for the later German Historical School.

 

  


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Major works of Friedrich List

  • Outlines of American Political Economy, in a series of letters, 1827. [bk]
  • Mittheilungen aus Nord-Amerika von F. List: erstes heft, ueber Canale und Eisenbahnen (ed. Ernst Weber and E.W. Arnoldi), 1829 [bk]
  • Nachtrag zum ersten hefte der Mittheilungen aus Nord-Amerika (ed. Ernst Weber and E.B. Arnoldi), 1829 [bk]
  • Über ein sächsisches Eisenbahn-System als Grundlage eines allgemeinen deutschen Eisenbahn-Systemes, und insbesondere über die Anlegung einer Eisenbahn von Leipzig nach Dresden, 1833 [bk]
  • Das deutsche National-Transport-System in volks- und staatswirthschaftlicher Beziehung, 1838 [bk]
  • Andeutung der Vortheile eines preußischen Eisenbahnsystems und insbesondere einer Eisenbahn zwischen Hamburg, Berlin, Magdeburg und Leipzig, c.1840 [bk]
  • Das National System der politischen Oekonomie: erster band, der intenational Handel, die Handelspolitik und der deustche Zollverein, 1841
  •  [bk]
    • German editions: original 1841 book, 1844 2nd ed, 1851 GS ed, 1877 repr. [Lib]
    • English  translation. The National System of Political Economy. 1856 (Matile) trans, 1885 (Lloyd) trans, 1916 ed [av]; [McM, Lib]
    • French  translation 1851 trans, 1857 ed
    • Selections:
      • Die volkswirthschaftlichen Systeme und die Handelspolitik der europäischen Staaten und der Vereinigten Staaten von America, 1877  (ed. F. Stopel) [bk]
      • Die Lehren der handelspolitischen Geschichte der civilisirten Staaten Europa's und der Vereinigten Freistaaten Nordamerika's, 1877 [bk]
      • Eine Auswahl aus seinen Schriften (ed. Hermann Christern), 1901, bk
      • Protection as a national system suited for Victoria (ed. G.W. Cole), 1901 [bk]
  • "Die Ackerverfassung, die Zwergwirthschaft und die Auswanderung", 1842, Deutschen Vierteljahrsschrift [offpr]
  • Die Theorie des Dr. List vom Fabrikstaate und ihre geschichtlichen und statistischen Stützen, 1844 [bk]
  • Frederick List's Gesammelte Schriften, (ed. L. Häusser), 1850-51,  v.1, v.2, v.3
  • Collected Works, 1927-36.

 


HET

 

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Resources on Friedrich List

  • "Preliminary Essay" by Stephen Colwell in 1856 translation, p.xviii  [1867 ed]
  • Friedrich List: zur Erinnerung an seinen 50jährigen Todestag by Louis Katzenstein, 1896 [bk]
  • Friedrich List by Carl Jentsch [bk]
  • Friedrich List und Henry Ch. Carey als Vorläufer der modernen Schutzzollbewegung by Georgi Toscheff, 1906 [bk]
  • Problemstisches zu Friedrich List: Mit Anhang: Lists Briefe aus Amerika in deutscher Übersetzung by Curt Köhler, 1908 [bk]
  • Life of Friedrich List and a selection of his writings, by Margaret E. Hirst, 1909 [bk]
  • Der junge Friedrich List, ein schwäbischer Politiker by Karl Goeser, 1914 [bk]
  • List Page at McMaster
  • Lithograph of F. List
  • List page at Liberty Fund
  • List entry at Concise Encyc of Economics at LibertyFund
  • List entry at Britannica
  • List at biography.com
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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