Besieging The French Liberal Fortress: the Diffusion of Italian and German Economic Thought in the Last Quarter of the 19th Century

The outcome of the Franco-Prussian war and the unification of Germanyirreversibly altered Europe's political equilibrium and with it theideological predominance of French culture on the Continent. This wasparticularly true for the young economic science. The predominance ofAnglo-French economic liberalism had had its culmination in 1860 withthe Cobden Chevalier Treaty, sanctioning not only the commitment ofGreat Britain and France to free trade but also the proximity of their traditions in economic thought. The emergence, though, in the subsequent decade of new national bodies in Italy and Germany brought to the forefrontthe necessity to justify institutional changes and profound reforms inlaw and polities, a feat done summoning the historical evolution of societies more than endorsing individual freedom. Eisenach was the German answer, Milan the Italian one. Both congresses, held in 1872 and 1875 respectively, harshly condemned the inhuman working conditions, for women and children, entailed in the industrialization process and consequently invoked the intervention of the State in the name of moral principles. Contingency was so the excuse of pervading policies that could be adapted to different situations in space and time. Liberalists could not accept such turn in economic science. Across borders, alarmed reviews of the two Congresses were printed, translated and commented, journals were even founded with the intent to refute or diffuse the new theories. The ensuing "Methodenstreit" became a powerful means to diffuse economic thinking in the whole of Europe, stimulating international reviewing of economic books and articles and the translation of economic texts.