ECONOMIC  Systems

The German historical school

The German historical school gathered a series of German theorists [Friedrich List (1789-1846), Bruno Hildebrand (1812-1878), Wilhelm Roscher (1817-1894), later Adolph Wagner (1835-1917), Gustav von Schmoller (1838-1917), Karl Bücher (1847-1930), Werner Sombart (1863-1941), etc.] who questioned the tenets of classical economic thought, showing that the institutional postulates of these thinkers are not universally validated. Their methodology was inductive, based on the description of observed facts, the preparation of monographs, and focusing on the structural differences between countries or regions (especially between England and Germany/the German world).

Unlike the classics, who were proponents of free trade, the German "historians" advocated for protectionism; they formulated the concepts of "economic regime" and "national economy," tracked the evolution of economic reality over time, and classified economic systems based on the geographical scope of exchanges (domestic economy, urban economy, national economy, international economy) and the mode of payment (barter economy, monetary economy, credit economy).

The contributions of this school gradually fell into oblivion due to their excessively descriptive nature, the denial of any idea of economic law, and their persistent preference for case studies. The end of the 19th century was marked by the triumph of neoclassical thought and the marginalist school.

[See: Tiberiu Brăilean – "Economic Systems" (Iași, Editura Junimea, 2009, p. 32)]