ABSTRACT
For centuries, various judgments and some allegations of plagiarism have surrounded the issue of the sources of Friedrich List’s thought. List is not only interested in the total value of the output of his nation, but also in how rapidly or how slowly its economy is growing. List himself explains that every nation is productive to the extent to which it has known how to appropriate the attainments of former generations and increase them by its own acquirements. There are no doubts about List’s awareness of the cost-benefit analysis in education and human capital formation. In the same place, indeed, List acknowledges that ‘books and newspapers act on the mental and material production by giving information’ and that their acquisition is subject to market costs. The fathers of the National Innovation System, Freeman and Bengt-Ake Lundvall, evoke List’s National System as a precursor.
