Karl Gustav Adolf Knies

Knies, Karl Gustav Adolf 

Born Mar. 29, 1821, in Marburg; died Aug. 3, 1898, in Heidelberg. German economist, one of the founders of the historical school of bourgeois political economy. Professor of economics (cameralistic) at the University of Freiberg (1855–60), professor of economics at the University of Heidelberg (1865–96).

Knies tried to justify the necessity of reorganization of political economy from the position of a vulgarized historical method. Rejecting the objective nature of economic laws, Knies maintained that political economy can only describe the origin and development of economic phenomena and is unable to make theoretical generalizations from these phenomena. He maintained that the socioeconomic foundations of bourgeois society were eternal. Knies was a supporter of the metallistic theory of money.

WORKS

Die politische Ökonomie von Standpunkte der geschichtlichen Methode. Braunschweig, 1853.
Die politische Ökonomie vom geschichtlichen Standpunkte, parts 1–2. Osnabrück, 1964.
Geld und Kredit, 2nd ed. Berlin, 1885.

REFERENCE

Bürgerliche Ökonomie im modernen Kapitalismus. Berlin, 1967.

V. S. AFANAS’EV