Abstract
The article highlights List’s acting as bureaucrat, secretary of the German Association of Industry and Commerce and deputy at the Württemberg Legislative Assembly to show that much of his economic ideas, including his criticisms of classical liberal orthodoxy, were already formulated before his exile in the United States. In order to place this debate in a larger context, it details not only the process of diffusion and resignification of The Wealth of Nations in German domains, but also how List demonstrates the inconsistencies of free trade, in the case of countries characterized by remarkable disparities in terms of productive forces. It is noteworthy that due to his experience as a bureaucrat, still under strong influence of Cameralism, this constituted an important source of inspiration for List, above all, with regard to the role of the State in creating the propitious conditions to economic development.
Keywords:
Friedrich List (1789-1846); Cameralism; Political economy; Free trade; Adam Smith (1723-1790)