Historical School - rekishigaku is (English spelling) historische Schule German

Japanese: 歴史学派 - れきしがくは（英語表記）historische Schule ドイツ語

The orthodox school of economics in Germany at the time, pioneered by A.H. Muller and especially F. List, had the greatest influence in Germany from the 1940s to the early 20th century. Germany was a late capitalist country, and even in the 19th century, it was divided into many territorial states and was in a difficult state for capitalism to develop until the (Second) German Empire was established with Prussia at its center after its victory in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Capitalist development finally began with the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms (1807-) in Prussia during and after the Napoleonic Wars and the establishment of the Customs Union in 1834, but at that time in Germany, the "German Manchester School" preached free trade, influenced by A. Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776), which was translated into German early at the end of the 18th century, and as long as they followed their teachings, the German market would inevitably be under the control of industrial products from Britain, an advanced capitalist country. The theory of state organism, the historical nature and national character of economics, and the theory of stages of economic development had already been preached by Muller and List, but the Historical School was an extension of these ideas, opposing the abstraction of British classical economics and emphasizing the historical nature of economic phenomena and the need for historical research. With the founding of the Society for Social Policy in 1873, the historical school is usually divided into two: the old (or early) historical school represented by W. G. Roscher, K. G. Knies, B. Hildebrand, and others, and the new (late) historical school represented by G. Schmoller, L. Brentano, A. H. Wagner, and others.

[Tadashi Hayasaka]

Old Historical School

The historical school is usually considered to have begun with Roscher's "Syllabus on State Economics According to the Historical Method" published in 1843, which argued that economics should not be the study of wealth as it was understood in England, but should be a political economy with the unit of the nation or people, and the preface to the book, which advocated the "historical or biological method", eventually came to be regarded as the "Historical School Manifesto". The old historical school also inherited List's theory of stages of economic development, although in various forms, but due to the changes in the situation in Germany at the time, they tended to be interested in the gradually emerging labor problem rather than the formation of the German national economy, which was List's main concern, but they had not yet gone so far as to preach social policy.

[Tadashi Hayasaka]

New School of History

Since almost all members of the New (Late) School of History gathered in the Social Policy Society, they are also called the "Social Policy School," and because they preached social policies with a strong socialist bent from university lectures, they are often called "lecture socialists" (at first critically, but soon also positively), even though they opposed socialism in the sense of trying to overthrow the capitalist system. The New School of History is similar to the Old School of History, which followed List, in that it preaches the historical nature of each country's economy and national character, but in response to the worsening labor problems caused by the rapid progress of capitalism following the unification of the German Empire, it emphasized the ethical nature of national economies, and while it basically accepted the capitalist system, it rejected the economic liberalism (popularized as laissez-faire) preached by the British Classical School in order to strengthen German capitalism, and emphasized the need for the state to actively implement social policies to improve the living standards of workers to a certain extent and ease labor-management conflicts, and attempted to provide an economic and ethical foundation for social policies. This is the most distinctive feature of the New School of History. Along with the old historical school, it had a considerable influence on American institutionalist thinking and on some British economists from the mid-19th century onwards, and the founding of the Japan Society for Social Policy Studies (1896) was also a direct result of its influence.

Historical economists did not dismiss theory as meaningless, but they made great achievements in research on the historical and national characteristics of economic phenomena, which were almost completely ignored by Ricardian economics, and made few contributions to theory in the narrow sense. The historical school was virtually dissolved as a school of thought by the beginning of the 20th century, due to the fierce methodological debate between Schmoller and C. Menger in the 1880s, the value judgment debate that began with M. Weber's criticism of the ethical nature of Schmoller's economics in the early 20th century, and the multifaceted criticism by W. Sombart. However, the historical research of this school and its partial influence on Weber, Sombart, J. A. Schumpeter, and some British and Japanese economists were enormous, and with the growing voices of the crisis of abstract economics from around 1970, interest in both the old and new historical schools, which had been almost ignored for a long time, is now greatly increasing again.

[Tadashi Hayasaka]

"Complete Collection of Economic Theories 5: The Formation and Development of the Historical School" edited by Kazuo Okochi (1956, Kawade Shobo) " "History of German Social Policy Thought" by Kazuo Okochi (1936, Nippon Hyoronsha / Collected Works of Kazuo Okochi I and II, 1968, 1969, Seirin Shoin Shinsha) " "Studies on German Historical Economics" by Toyojiro Akabane (1970, Kazama Shobo)

[Reference] | History of Economic Theory

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

A・H・ミュラーや、ことにF・リストを先駆者とし、19世紀40年代から20世紀初頭にかけてドイツで最大の影響力をもった当時のドイツにおける正統的経済学派。後発資本主義国ドイツは、19世紀に入っても、プロイセン・フランス戦争（1870～71）の勝利によりプロイセンを中心に（第二）ドイツ帝国が成立するまで、あまたの領邦国家に分裂していて資本主義が育ちにくい状態にあった。ナポレオン戦争中および以後のプロイセンにおけるシュタイン‐ハルデンベルクの改革（1807～）や1834年の関税同盟の成立によってようやく資本主義的発展も緒につき始めたが、当時ドイツでは、18世紀末にいち早く独訳されたA・スミス『国富論』（1776）の影響を受け、自由貿易を説く「ドイツ・マンチェスター学派」が力をもっており、その説くところに従う限り、ドイツ市場は先進資本主義国たるイギリスの工業製品の蹂躙(じゅうりん)下に置かれざるをえなかった。国家有機体説や経済学の歴史性・国民性、経済発展段階説などはミュラーやリストによってすでに説かれていたが、その延長線上にたってイギリス古典派経済学の抽象性に反対し、経済現象の歴史性と、したがってその歴史的研究の必要性を強調したのが歴史学派である。1873年の社会政策学会の創設を契機に、それ以前のW・G・ロッシャー、K・G・クニース、B・ヒルデブラントらを代表者とする旧（ないし前期）歴史学派と、それ以後のG・シュモラー、L・ブレンターノ、A・H・ワグナーらを代表者とする新（後期）歴史学派とに通常二分される。

［早坂　忠］

旧歴史学派

歴史学派は普通、1843年刊のロッシャーの『歴史的方法による国家経済学講義要綱』に始まるとされ、経済学はイギリスで解されているような致富の学でなく、国ないし民族を単位とする政治経済学でなければならぬと説き、「歴史的ないし生物学的方法」を提唱した同書の序文は、やがて「歴史学派宣言」とみなされるようになった。旧歴史学派の人々も、形はさまざまにせよ経済発展段階説をとる点ではリストを継承しているが、当面のドイツの状況の変化上、リストがもっとも念頭に置いたドイツ国民経済の形成よりむしろ、徐々に台頭しつつあった労働問題のほうに関心を寄せがちだったが、しかしまだ社会政策を説くには至らなかった。

［早坂　忠］

新歴史学派

新（後期）歴史学派の人々はほとんどすべて社会政策学会に結集していたので「社会政策学派」ともよばれ、また大学の講壇からかなり社会主義がかった社会政策を説いたので、彼らは資本主義体制の転覆を図るという意味での社会主義には反対だったにもかかわらず、「講壇社会主義派（者）」と（初めは批判的に、しかしほどなく肯定的にも）よばれることも多い。新歴史学派は、各国経済の歴史性や国民性を説く点ではリストの流れをくむ旧歴史学派と同様であるが、ドイツ帝国の統一に伴う資本主義化の急進展に基づく労働問題の深刻化に対応して、国民経済のもつ倫理的性格を強調し、基本的には資本主義体制を承認しつつも、ドイツ資本主義の強化のためにイギリス古典学派の説いた経済的自由主義（通俗化された形では自由放任論）を退け、ある程度まで労働者の生活水準を向上させ労使の対立を緩和するために国家が積極的に社会政策を行う必要があることを強調し、社会政策の経済的・倫理的基礎づけを行おうとした点に、この新歴史学派の最大の特徴がある。旧歴史学派とともに、アメリカの制度学派的思考や19世紀中葉以降のイギリスの一部の経済学者にかなりの影響を与え、また日本社会政策学会の創設（1896）もその直接的影響線上にある。

　歴史学派の経済学者たちは、理論を無意味としたわけではないが、とくにリカード経済学によって表面上ほぼまったく無視された経済現象の歴史性・国民性を重視するあまりに、その面の研究では大きな成果をあげたが、狭義の理論面での貢献は乏しく、1880年代のシュモラーとC・メンガーとの間での激烈な方法論争、20世紀初頭のM・ウェーバーによるシュモラー経済学の倫理的性格批判に始まる価値判断論争、さらにW・ゾンバルトによる多方面からする批判が加わって、歴史学派は20世紀初頭には、学派としては事実上、発展的解消を遂げた。しかし、この学派の歴史的研究や、同学派がウェーバー、ゾンバルト、J・A・シュンペーター、そして一部のイギリスや日本の経済学者に与えた部分的影響は甚大であり、1970年ごろからの抽象的経済学の危機の声の高まりとともに、かなりの期間ほぼ無視されるに近かった新・旧両歴史学派に対する関心がふたたび大きく高まりつつあるのが現状である。

［早坂　忠］

『大河内一男編『経済学説全集5　歴史学派の形成と展開』（1956・河出書房）』▽『大河内一男著『独逸社会政策思想史』（1936・日本評論社／『大河内一男著作集Ⅰ・Ⅱ』1968、1969・青林書院新社）』▽『赤羽豊治郎著『ドイツ歴史派経済学研究』（1970・風間書房）』

[参照項目] | 経済学説史

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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