ABSTRACT

In Roscher's writing, the debate on crises was particularly lively in France, Britain and the US, as these countries had already been affected by a number of violent crises. The medical metaphor was in the nineteenth century one of the most pervasive uses of figurate language in the discussion of economic crises. Roscher started instead from a clear statement that the harmonic growth of the economy requires a proportionate increase of both production and consumption; the equilibrium of supply and demand is thus one of the main conditions for the prosperity of the economy. Roscher's general attitude on the relationship of crises with the working of the economic system is clearly brought out by the medical metaphor. Roscher uses some of the metaphors that were at the time associated with the description of the credit, overtrading and overspeculation relationship. The power of metaphors emerges at its clearest with Roscher's understanding of storms not only as clearing the atmosphere, but also as fertilising the soil.