Schmoller's Political Economy: Self‐interest versus the Higher Law

Schmoller reserves his admiration for those entrepreneurs who succeeded in the acquisition of wealth but whose primary goal was the promotion of the public interest. Such individuals as List, Steiner,Geibel, Abbe and von Mevissen are of this sort. Schmoller is lavish in his praise of them. Schmoller is critical of the natural economy of Adam Smith where each individual is activated by his own self‐interest. Schmoller sees in the higher law a guide to human behaviour. Moneymakers are not necessarily men of great talent. For this reason Schmoller prefers the man who is driven by the pursuit of idealistic goals. Schmoller′s historical approach to the political economy, one shared by some in the Western world, is to be contrasted with the view that the best type of social order permits the individual to pursue his self‐interest and that such a pursuit is in keeping with the social interest.