ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Economics, Statistics and History. The Legacy of the German Historical School in Belgium
Author: Erreygers Guido, Van Dijck Maarten
Belgium’s intellectual climate in the second half of the 19th century was characterized by deep ideological cleavages, and heavily oriented towards France. It is, therefore, remarkable that many Belgian economists and historians, from a wide variety of ideological backgrounds, favourably received the writings of the German Historical School. In this paper we explore the influence exerted by the German Historical School on economists and economic historians between 1870 and 1914. We argue that the German Historical School was an important factor in the development of economics and sociology in Belgium, and played a crucial role in the emergence of the discipline of economic history. Personal contacts and study periods of Belgian scholars in the German academic world were important ways to spread the ideas of the German Historical School. And even though a formal historical school never existed in Belgium, the themes and methods of the German Historical School were continuing sources of inspiration, at least until the beginning of the war in 1914. Several reasons explain why the ideas of the German Historical School became a source of attraction. There was a strong interest in the inductive method and in the use of all kinds of empirical research (statistical studies, surveys, archival research, …) in the social sciences. Some economists were charmed by the multidisciplinary character and the ethical dimensions of the work by members of the school. Moreover, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries broad support developed for economic and social policies aimed at improving the living conditions of the majority of the population. We illustrate the influence of the German Historical School by looking successively at the economists Émile De Laveleye (section 2) and Victor Brants (section 3), the historian Henri Pirenne (section 4), and the Institut de Sociologie (section 5).
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