ABSTRACT
Gustav von Schmoller (1838-1917), the leading figure in the ‘younger German historical school’, is an essential but sometimes overlooked source of institutionalist currents of thought. He was a promoter of the approach based on the ‘national economy’ (Volkswirtschaft), and a defender of the social reforms carried out by an enlightened monarch, in his case the Prussian king, and an opponent of both Manchester school liberalism and socialism. In the history of thought he is mainly remembered for his dispute with Menger at the time of the Methodenstreit (quarrel over methods), and his thinking has often been caricatured or forgotten.
