The Peculiarities of the Development of Economic Thought in Lithuania (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Centuries)

Abstract

Economic thought in Lithuania has comparatively deep historical roots and some special achievements to its credit. The establishment of the Department of Political Economy at the University of Vilnius in 1803 was the first such high recognition of the physiocrats’ concept in the history of economic science. The reasons for physiocracy to appear as a syllabus subject at Vilnius University were rooted not only in the specific character of the country’s economy and educational system, but also in the ideological prehistory of the discipline. The turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries marked the first period of vigorous development in economic thought in Lithuania and coincided with the development of economic ideas at Vilnius University, established in 1579. Rapid changes in economic life and the widespread Reformation movement in the mid-sixteenth century gave birth to active debates on social and economic issues. At that time the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was not merely following the development of economic ideas of the West (which was the fact later, especially with the upsurge in the economic thought in the twentieth century), but also disputing them (although the scope of this polemic was noticeably slender) and looking for solutions to the country’s keenest economic problems. The economic ideas of Jan Abramowicz, Marcin Smiglecki and others are worth consideration in the context of the development of European economic thought as a whole. The educational reforms at Vilnius University at the end of the eighteenth century (from Vilnius Academy, managed by Jesuits, to a more open educational institution) gave a birth to a new upsurge of economic thought in Lithuania. Vilnius University adopted the new discipline of Political Economy. Professors Hieronim Stroynowski, Jan Waszkewicz, and Michał Oczapowski started developing various courses in economics. However, after the Uprising of 1831 the University of Vilnius was closed down and further development of economic thought was restricted for almost a century. The unsteady evolution of economic thought in Lithuania in the period under review is connected with the country’s general economic and political development.