Friedrich List: Politics

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

Friedrich List: 30 quotes1 like

“But politics demands, in the interests of each separate nation, guarantees for its independence and continued existence, special regulations to help its progress in culture, prosperity, and power, to build its society into a perfectly complete and harmoniously developed body politic, self-contained and independent.”

Introduction, translated and reproduced in Hirst (1909), p. 291
The National System of Political Economy (1841)

“Educational facilities will be extended and better standards of morality will be established. Political institutions, too, will be improved. In this way a backward nation can develop into a progressive state.”

Source: The Natural System of Political Economy (1837), p. 44

“From the nation they draw all the benefits of civilisation, enlightenment, progress, and social and political institutions, as well as advances in the arts and sciences.”

Source: The Natural System of Political Economy (1837), p. 30

“… the Union can grow powerful only by fostering the manufacturing interest. This, Sir, I think the true American political economy.”

Letter IV
Outlines of American Political Economy (1827)

“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