National System of Political Economy by LIST, Friedrich - 1885

First Edition of this Translation LIST, Friedrich. The National System of Political Economy. Translated from the Original German by Sampson S. Lloyd, M.P. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1885. First edition of this translation. Octavo (8 5/8 x 5 5/8 inches; 219 x 142 mm). xxxi, [1, blank], [1]-454, [2, publisher's ads], [40, publisher's catalogue] pp. Publisher's full brown cloth. Boards quadruple-ruled in black. Spine lettered and ruled in gilt. Black endpapers. Partially unopened. Cloth a bit rubbed. A old bookseller label affixed to front boards. Binding slightly skewed. Overall a very good copy. ìFriedrich List [1789-1846] is one of the earliest and most severe critics of the classical school of political economy. He denounced Adam Smith and his disciples as the ëcosmopolitan schoolí and held that universal free trade was an ideal that could be achieved only in the far distant future. For the time being, he argued, each nation should foster the development of its own manufacturers by import duties and even outright prohibitions. Only by such means could countries like Germany, Russia and the United States ever hope to achieve the industrial efficiency that would enable them to compete on equal terms with Britainî (Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, pp. 129-131). ìDespite the influence of Alexander Hamilton, the seeds of ëThe National System of Political Economyí are to be found in the romantic theories of Adam M¸ller (1779-1829). From him List derived his opposition to Adam Smith and the principle of free-trade. He denied Smithís parallel between the economic good of the individual and the state, and saw in Smithís ëfree tradeí unprincipled private advantage to the detriment of the state. To List, the nation was a separate unit standing between the concepts of the individual and humanity as a whole; its unity consisting of common language, traditions, culture and constitution. It followed that its wealth lay not in the capacity for commercial international exchange, as Smith held, bu in the development of its own economic and productive resources. Thus, the good of the national economy must override that of the individual. From this followed Listís theory of industrial politics, which was based on an alternating pattern of free trade and controls determined always by the final good of the state...These views coincided so exactly with the reawakening of German nationalism that Listís book caused a great sensation when it was published, and it remained for seventy years the theoretic gospel of the advocates of protectionist tariffs in Germany, Britain and the United Statesî (Printing and the Mind of Man). Einaudi. Goldsmiths'. Kress. PMM. HBS 65800. $375