List, Friedrich, 1789-1846, German economist. The first professor of economics at the Univ. of Tübingen, he was elected (1820) to the Württemberg legislature. For his advocacy of administrative reforms he was sentenced to imprisonment but was released on condition that he would emigrate to the United States. There he engaged in various enterprises, and in 1832 he was returned to Germany as U.S. consul at Leipzig. Insisting upon the necessity for a commercial association of German states and the full development of productive powers in those states, he became a ceaseless advocate of a customs union (Zollverein). He urged a policy of economic protection for young industries and nations. Many of his influential ideas were subsequently adopted by the U.S. government. List's most important work is The National System of Political Economy (1840, tr. 1904).

(born Aug. 6, 1789, Reutlingen, Württemberg, Ger.—died Nov. 30, 1846, Kufstein, Austria) German-born U.S. economist. He first gained prominence as the founder of an association of German industrialists that favoured abolishing tariff barriers between the German states. Exiled in 1825 for his liberal views, he went to the U.S. In his Outlines of American Political Economy (1827) he maintained that a national economy in an early stage of industrialization required tariff protection to stimulate development. After becoming a U.S. citizen, he returned to Germany as U.S. consul at Baden (1831–34) and Leipzig (1834–37). His best-known work was The National System of Political Economy (1841). Financial and other difficulties eventually drove him to suicide.

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