Friedrich List: Industrialization

Friedrich List was German economist with dual American citizenship. Explore interesting quotes on industrialization.

Friedrich List: 30 quotes1 like

“For the more rapid the growth of a spirit of industrial invention and improvement, of social and political reform, the wider becomes the gap between stationary and progressive nations, and the more dangerous it is to remain on the further side.”

Introduction, in Hirst (1909), pp. 287–288
The National System of Political Economy (1841)

“The economic betterment of a nation which is at a low level of intelligence and culture, or in which the population is small in relation to the extent and productivity of its territory, is best accomplished through free trade with highly cultivated, rich, and industrious nations. In the case of such a country every restriction of trade, intended to plant manufacturing industry within its borders, is premature and injurious, not only to the welfare of mankind in general, but to the progress of the nation itself. Only when the intellectual, political, and economic education of the nation has so far advanced as a result of free trade that its further progress would be checked and hindered by the import of foreign manufactures and the lack of a sufficient market for its own goods, can protective measures be justified.”

Introduction, in Hirst (1909), p. 312
The National System of Political Economy (1841)

“Finally, a nation should not regard the progress of industries from a purely economic point of view. Manufactures become a very important part of the nation‘s political and cultural heritage.”

Source: The Natural System of Political Economy (1837), p. 39

“It is no more than fair that England, now that she has attained the culminating point of her industrial growth and progress, should restore again to the nations of Continental Europe a portion of those productive forces which she originally derived from them.”

Source: The National System of Political Economy (1841), p. 56