Historical Changes and Economics in Arthur Spiethoff’s Theory of Wirtschaftsstil (Style of an Economic System)

The analysis of historical changes represented certainly a pivotal element in the work of representatives of the German historical school. However at the beginning of the 1900s the resuites achieved in reference to this theme after half a century of intense scientific production seemed quite unsatisfactory. The German historical school had yielded interesting historical analysis, new fields of research and original methodological contributions but the effects on the theoretical constructs within historical economics were quite scarce. The sense of frustration and confusion was further increased by the conclusion of Methodenstreit and by the awareness of the capability of the Neo-classical approach to produce a rising stratification of new theoretical constructs and new scientific categories. So, while the hiatus between history and theory did not seem to have any negative effects on the scientific productivity of the Neo-classical approach, within the German historical school, instead, the attempt to produce a stronger connection between the theoretical and empirical dimension seemed arid and unfruitful.1