Adolph Wagner, Briefe - Dokumente - Augenzeugenberichte 1851-1917: Ausgewählt und herausgegeben von Heinrich Rubner, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1979. DM 158,-

Zwecksetzungen und Zielvorstellungen in den Wirtschafts- und Soziallehren des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts

The essay examines the natural law economics of the eighteenth century and the evolutionist economics of the nineteenth century by focusing on their methods for achieving a common, nebulously articulated goal: individual fulfillment and the happiness and welfare of mankind in a free, harmoniously ordered society. Illustrating the theoretical and, in practice, effective theories derived from natural law are cammeralism, the economic philosophy of the Physiocrats, and economic liberalism. It is emphasized that these theories do not represent a linear sequence of ideas in which one set of ideas „triumphed” over a preceding one. They show instead three different consequences reflecting the inte…