Friedrich List and the Economic Fate of Tropical Countries

Mauro Boianovsky

History of Political Economy, 2013, vol. 45, issue 4, 647-691

Abstract: The goal of this article is twofold. It examines how Friedrich List’s interpretation of the economic dynamics of “tropical†countries (countries located in tropical climates) as nonindustrial exporters of primary commodities fits in his analytical framework and accords with his emphasis on the explanatory value of environmental factors and on the role of colonialism in the development of “temperate†countries (countries located in temperate climates). This is followed by a selective investigation of the reception of List’s ideas in some Latin American countries (particularly Brazil) between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, as an attempt to establish whether List’s readers in those countries took any notice of his point that the infant-industry argument did not apply to tropical areas and that such economies should not embark on an industrialization process.

Keywords: Friedrich List; development economics; economic development; industrialization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hope.dukejournals.org/content/45/4/647.full.pdf+html link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hop:hopeec:v:45:y:2013:i:4:p:647-691

Access Statistics for this article

History of Political Economy is currently edited by Kevin D. Hoover

More articles in History of Political Economy from Duke University Press Duke University Press 905 W. Main Street, Suite 18B Durham, NC 27701.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Center for the History of Political Economy Webmaster ().