ABSTRACT
The fourth and final part of this volume makes some suggestions for the development of a historically sensitive economics. It must be emphasised that these are merely preliminary suggestions: no complete theory is provided here. Those who expect such a theory must have misread the last 15 chapters. The development of a historically sensitive economics has been a tortuous story lasting more than 160 years, in which the last sixty years involved an almost complete abandonment of the problem. The first major task is simply to place the problem once more on the agenda of economics and the other social sciences. Those who expect instant solutions misunderstand the trials and tribulations required to bring any fundamentally new theory on the stage. They neglect the weight of history itself. Nevertheless, in the light of the above historical narrative, an attempt can be made to move the analysis as far forward as possible, in the limited space that the remaining pages provide. Given these constraints, it is impossible to discuss all relevant developments in full, and some parts of the account are inevitably sketchy or incomplete.
