Fridrich List on Going West and Empire

Arno Mong Daastøl arnomd at online.no
Thu Oct 8 22:52:09 PDT 1998


Sorry for the late reply. It concerns whether the northern states were eager to occupy the western territories of the US. Some obviously did not. Remember, List was tightly connected to the key people in the industrial centre, Philadelphia.

List on Going West (from a long section):

See the best intro to List, his main book, The National System, which really ought to be called the Continental System: http://www.cpm.ll.ehime-u.ac.jp/AkamacHomePage/Akamac_E-text_Links/List.html

"If a power existed that cherished the project of keeping down the rise of the American people and bringing them under subjection to itself industrially, commercially, or politically, it could only succeed in its aim by trying to depopulate the Atlantic states of the Union and driving all increase of population, capital, and intellectual power into the interior. By that means it would not only check the further growth of the nation's naval power, but might also indulge the hope of getting possession in time of the principal defensive strategical positions on the Atlantic coast and at the mouths of the rivers."

Concerning List on Empire, I think the following should be kept in mind:

At the time there was no free trade in the sense for example of secure trade. Therefore a navy was necessary to secure the nation's merchant fleet. And overseas trade was to some extent necessary because of lack of relevant raw materials at home etc. At the time being, establishing "provinces" might have been the most practical solution for this logistic problem (which really was what List wanted - through emigration of Germans - to South America and Turkey especially).

So, I am only trying to say that List's policy has to be seen in the light of the given problems and possibilities of his time.

Arno



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