The meaning of Economic History in Economic Education
Marian Zalesko, University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland, e-mail:
Contemporarily, ineconomic universities, there is the tendency to economic history marginalisation. However, the mathematical economy is more emphasized. It is the reason of concern for many economists who consider the economy as a social science, deeply rooted in philosophy.
Is it worthy to make this science mathematical, or is it better to let it be a social science with a little bit of humanism? Finding middle-of-the-road proportions and including mathematics, as well as humanistic subjects (and among them connected economic history) seems to be the most advantageous. Then economic sciences will stay interdisciplinary and will be able to empower their position on the educational market.
Emphatically sounding statement of the eminent historians of economic thought, H. Landreth and D. Colander – to understand the presence on the basis of the past, prompts for reflection about the economic history role in teaching economy and explaining by it the processwhich is taking place in the economy. They convincedthat the historic events, which have influenced humans through the ages, had an effect on economic theory. It is hard to disagree with such a point of view.
It is worth to remind that the economic history has a quite long tradition. The beginnings of its identity shaping should be correlated with A. Smith (1723-1790) reference. This Scottish economist and philosopher in 1776 published TheNatureand Causes of the Wealth of Nation, which was one of the first and the most validated political economy compilation which also included leading historical-economic analyses. Smith in his analyses reached to times of the great geographical discoveries in order to explain the problem of some nations wealth and poverty of others. In XIX the further development of economic history continued, especially influenced by GermanHistoricSchool and Marxism.The XX c. made the economic history become independent. It became the separated science discipline, which should be correlated with reference about economic history, as well as introducing economic history into university studies curriculums. In the universities of Europe and Americaspecialized departments were created,and later economic history science associations.However it was not the end of the work on economic history identity shaping. Economic research from historic point of view was continued. They were emphasized by French School Annales with F. Braudel (1902-1985) and the representatives of the New Economic History – Americans, D. North and R. Fogel, the Nobel laureates in Economics in 1993.
For modern economists the history of economic history can be the source of valuable hints which are necessary to conduct the researchon economic problems which are dealt with nowadays by the world. Meanwhile, the interpreters of economic processes often forget about the economic history role and mostly focus on building developing models, often distant from economic reality. It is not beneficial for research correctness and building, close to realistic, social-economic assumptions.
Mathematical precision and elegance which dominate in economic sciences of neoclassical theory, modelled, as D. North convinces, a static world without frictions and became a barrier for research on economic development in time. However, it turns out that “friction phenomenon” in the economy is widespread. Referring to history conduces its identification.
Past research and referring the result to the presence is a very wide task which is fulfilled by economy along with history. In economic, constructing conclusions without deep historic verification often becomes meandric and leads the economic researches to tracklessness. Mutual completing of both, history and economic, gives confidence that economic analyses from historic point of view have deep sense, because they will ease economic analytics’appropriate opinions construction.
In the case of forming a common research position towards some social-economic problem it is worth to refer to the statement of a Danish science historian, H. Kragh – The truth, which is searched, is not to be about history, but in history. These emphatic words are the perfect conclusion about the meaning of history in economic education.