I do not quite agree to the deeply rooted position since free trade was the dominant idea in Germany, at least among academics before List and after List until the admirer of List introduced moderate (!) protection in 1878: Bismarck.
Arno
-----Original Message----- From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Greg Nowell Sent: Friday, September 25, 1998 11:38 PM To: lbo talk Subject: Friedrich List & Franz Neumann
Neumann's Behemoth is a great work. It is true that List was a major influence on Nazi autarchic policies. List also advocated an getting a colonial empire on the British/French model. But I would not want to put Nazism on List's shoulders, there were a lot of nationalist imperialists who didn't got "quite that far." As for racism, List was race conscious but not of the Nazi variety. He advocated inter-racial breeding on the theory that it made for stronger humans.
List wasn't really an advocate of autarchy to the same extent as the Nazis. He did think industrialization was a good thing, and that tariffs were needed to prevent the emergence of a tradedeficit that would cause the banking system to collapse (and prices along with it).
A more radical autrachic theory was advanced in 1800 by J.G. Fichte, der Handelstaat Geschlossne (the Closed Commercial State) which has not been translated in English but is available in French and Italian as well as German. Fichte thought that self-sufficiency was the best way to avoid the imperialist excesses of international capitalism, and that as such it was a road to peace. Autarchic theory is deeply rooted in German experience and I think the Nazis could have come up with their ideas with or wihtout List.
-- Gregory P. Nowell Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Milne 100 State University of New York 135 Western Ave. Albany, New York 12222
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