ABSTRACT
Friedrich List is probably, besides Karl Marx, Germany’s most famous economist of the 19th century, although both were not professional academics. This chapter first traces German, American and French influences in List’s writings and ideas. These influences were formed in economically ascendant nations which had entered into a catching up-process towards the leading British economy at List’s time and after. Germany in particular lagged behind before an enormous catching up-process, which would have impressed List, took place between national unification at the end of the French-German war in 1871 and 1914. The chapter discusses core elements of List’s approach with the theory of productive forces and his stages theory of economic development. It presents the infant industry argument. With his theory of productive forces, he attempted to comprehend the preconditions of economic growth, but he was unable to transform his vision of economic dynamics into a theoretical model.
