----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- I recently returned from the 12th World Congress of the International Economic Association in Buenos Aires. In a session there Erich Streissler who holds the Menger Chair at the University of Vienna presented a paper entitled "Rau, Hermann and Roscher: Contributions of German Economics around the middle of the 19th Century." In it he argues that most of the Marshallian apparatus of partial equilibrium neoclassical economics, including supply and demand diagrams with price on the vertical axis, and an analysis of decreasing cost industries, was completed by 1850 or so at the hands of German economists located in non-Berlin universities, notably Karl Rau in Heidelberg in the 1820s, Friedrich Hermann in the 1830s in Munich who first drew a "modern" supply-demand diagram in 1841, and Wilhelm Roscher in Leipzig in subsequent decades. Supposedly Marshall read these folks in German and was heavily influenced by them but only gave them a small amount of credit. The Austrians following Menger also were heavily influenced by them but forgot them after Menger, most notoriously Wieser who falsely claimed to have discovered the concept of opportunity cost. Marx also was influenced especially by Roscher, although he criticized him unsurprisingly. In Germany this tradition was suppressed late in the century after German unification because of the link between the Berlin- based German Historical School led by Schmoller and the political ideology of the Prussian-German state. In the English language tradition, a combination of linguistic ignorance and anti-German prejudice led to a suppression and forgetting of this role of German economists after World War I. Supposedly Schumpeter played a role in this who did not like these German economists (I do not know why). Any comments? (BTW, so much for the claim that Fleeming Jenkin drew the first "standard" supply-demand diagram!) Barkley Rosser ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]