Friedrich List

Lore & Background

Daniel Friedrich List was born in the free imperial city of Reutlingen in the Duchy of Württemberg. He was educated at the town's Latin School and later apprenticed as a bureaucratic clerk. After passing his examination, he entered administrative service and became a Taxes and Warehouses Commissioner.

He later rose through the bureaucracy to become chief auditor and accountant, and he commissioned surveys among emigrants to study the increase in emigration. Lacking a university degree, List was appointed professor of public administration science through patronage, a move opposed by established professors who accused him of incompetence. He published arguments for constitutional liberalism and organized local merchants to establish the first modern German business association, which opposed customs borders between German states and envisioned a large German common market.

List advocated a retaliatory tariff to compensate for trade barriers abroad, though this was not yet his later concept of an educational tariff. He argued that the cost of a tariff should be seen as an investment in a nation's future productivity. His theories and writing influenced the American school of economics, and he is considered a forefather of the German historical school of economics.

Reader's Guide

List's significance lies in his development of the nationalist theory of political economy, which argued for raising tariffs on imported goods while supporting free trade of domestic goods, viewing the cost of a tariff as an investment in a nation's future productivity. He was a forefather of the German historical school of economics and his advocacy for the Zollverein helped lay the groundwork for German economic unification. His theories also influenced the American school of economics. His legacy endures in debates over protectionism, national economic development, and the relationship between liberalism and nationalism.