Gustav von Schmoller

Gustav von Schmoller (June 24, 1838 - June 27, 1917) was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics and probably the most distinguished Continental (European) economist of the time around 1900.

Life

Schmoller was born in Heilbronn. His father was a Württemberg civil servant. Young Schmoller studied "Staatswissenschaften" (a combination of economics, history and civil administration) in Tübingen. During his academic career he held posts of a professor in Halle (1864-72), Strasbourg (1872-82), and Berlin (1882-1913). After 1899 he represented the University of Berlin in the Prussian House of Lords.New International Encyclopedia He was a leading member of the "Kathedersozialisten" (socialists of the chair), and a founder and long-time chairman of the "Verein für Socialpolitik", the German Economics Association, which today still exists. Schmoller's influence on academic policy, economic and fiscal reform, and economics as an academic discipline for the time between 1875 and 1910 can hardly be overrated.

His works, the majority of which deal with industrial history, include:
* "Strassburg zur Zeit der Zunftkämpfe" (1875)
* "Zur Litteraturgeschichte der Staats- und Sozialwissenschaften" (1888)
* "Umrisse und Untersuchungen zur Verfassungs-, Verwaltungs-, und Wirtschaftsgeschichte" (1898)
* "Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirthschaftslehre" (1900)
* "Ueber einige Grundfragen der Sozialpolitik" (1904)

After 1881 Schmoller was editor of the "Jahrbuch für Gesetzebung, Verwaltung, und Volkswirthschaft im deutschen Reich". From 1878 to 1903 he edited a series of monographs entitled "Staats- und sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungen". To "Acta Borussia", the publication of which was undertaken by the Berlin Academy of Science upon Schmoller's and Sybel's instigation, Schmoller contributed many essays.New International Encyclopedia

Work

As an outspoken leader of the "younger" historical school, Schmoller was against what he saw as the axiomatic-deductive approach of the Austrian school. This led to the controversy known as the "Methodenstreit", which today often appears as being one of the main reasons for the later demise of the whole historical school, although - as Schumpeter had pointed out - this was really a quarrel "within" that school. In fact, Schmoller's primarily deductive approach, requesting careful study, comparative in time and space, of economic performance and phenomena generally, and his insistence on the cultural specificity of economics, stand in stark contrast to some classical and all neoclassical economists, so that he and his school soon after his death, but at the latest around 1935, fell out of the mainstream.

Today, Schmoller is largely forgotten within "standard textbook economics", even within Germany. Schmoller is becoming slowly reevaluated since the late 1980s, especially within some branches of heterodox economics, especially development economics, evolutionary economics and neo-institutional economics.

Bibliography

Works by Schmoller

One of the reasons of Schmoller's being forgotten is that his myriad of books were not translated into English, because at his time, Anglo-American economists generally read German. An exception is
*"The Mercantile System and Its Historical Significance", New York: Macmillan, 2nd ed. 1910. This is a chapter from Schmoller's much larger work "Studien ueber die wirthschaftliche politik Friedrichs des Grossen" which was published in 1884. The chapter was translated by William J. Ashley and published in 1897 under its English title above.His "magnum opus",
*"Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre", Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1900-1904,is not available in translation, which makes reception today very difficult. The "Grundriss" has often been mentioned as one of the most disparaged books in economic history as compared to how many people have actually read it; it might even outrank Marx's "Das Kapital" in this respect.

Important recent books on Schmoller in English

* Backhaus, Jürgen G. (1994), ed. "Gustav Schmoller and the Problems of Today". "History of Economic Ideas", vol.s I/1993/3, II/1994/1.
*Backhaus, Jürgen G. (1997), ed. "Essays in Social Security and Taxation. Gustav von Schmoller and Adolph Wagner Reconsidered". Marburg: Metropolis.
*Balabkins, Nicholas W. (1988). "Not by theory alone...: The Economics of Gustav von Schmoller and Its Legacy to America." Berlin: Duncker u. Humblot. The best short monograph on Schmoller, brilliant on his thought and its relevance today.
*Koslowski, Peter, ed. "The Theory of Ethical Economy in the Historical School. Wilhelm Roscher, Lorenz v. Stein, Gustav Schmoller, Wilhelm Dilthey and Contemporary Thought." Berlin etc.: Springer.
*Shionoya, Yuichi (2001), ed. "The German Historical School: The Historical and Ethical Approach to Economics." London etc.: Routledge.

External links

* [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/schmoller.htm Short biography] with a photo
* [http://www.punkerslut.com/critiques/schmoller/class.html A Leftist Criticism of Gustav Schmoller's "On Class Conflict in General" (1915)]