Noboru Kobayashi and his Study on the History of Economic Thought:

National and Historical Characters in the Making of Economics

Abstract

Abstract: This paper explores the core of the late Noboru Kobayashiʼs scholarship on the histo-ry of economic thought. Kobayashiʼs main research topics are British mercantilism, Adam Smith and Friedlich List. For him, these topics are not independent subjects, but integrated into a single theme. By examining the national and historical charac-ters of Britainʼs and Germanyʼs economics, he tried to elucidate the structures of their economies from the viewpoint of the generation of modern productive powers. He called the unique methodology of his study the “heuristic reciprocation between the history of economic thought and economic history.” Kobayashi clarified that Smithʼs misunderstanding of mercantilism caused a basic defect in his historical recognition of the formation of British capitalism, and that the foundation to Listʼs criticism of Smith arose from this defect. The idiosyncratic points of Kobayashiʼs study are as follows. First, from the view-point of the developing stages of economic theory, Steuartʼs Principles and Smithʼs Wealth of Nations are defined as a general theory of primitive accumulation and a system of capitalist accumulation, respectively. Second, a common feature among the above two works is the economics of affluence, and Steuartʼs Principles can be de-fined as the first system of political economy. Third, Tuckerʼs gradual shift toward economic liberalism coexisted with his consistent political conservatism. Fourth, Listʼs relatively neglected work, Land System, is the key to understanding his social science. He proposed expansionistic policies toward Hungary and the Balkans to cre-ate middle-scale farms as a domestic market for the protected industrial power. In his later years, worrying about the fact that postwar Japan “has amassed an enor-mous GNP at the cost of balance in its economy,” Kobayashi expressed the need for a reflection on contemporary economics that originated with Smith. JEL classifications numbers: B 12, B 15, B 31.