Wilhelm Roscher

Wilhelm Roscher (1817–1894) was a German economist, the founder of the historical school of political economy. Born in Hanover and educated at Göttingen and Berlin, he taught at Göttingen and from 1848 at Leipzig. His Outline of Lectures on Political Economy (1843) announced a program of studying economic life as it had actually developed among nations, and his System der Volkswirtschaft, whose first volume, the Principles of Political Economy, appeared in 1854 and went through many editions, carried it out with enormous historical learning. He also wrote a history of economics in Germany. His influence on German and American economists was considerable.