What Schumpeter Learned at the London School of Economics

Abstract

In this paper, the author examines the contents of lectures given by A. C. Haddon, E. Westermarck, and Sydney Webb that Schumpeter attended at the London School of Eco-nomics （LSE） in 1907. This paper uses as references the syllabus of the LSE at that time and written works by the lecturers. Most research on the sources of Schumpeterʼs ideas on economic development and socioeconomics has been conducted based on discussions of Marxist economic thought, the German historical school, and American economists. Little attention has been accorded to the LSE lectures attended by Schumpeter. Consequently, essential parts of Schumpeterʼs history of economic thought have been ignored. This paper addresses that deficit. It has been established that Schumpeter attended lectures at the LSE on ethnology and sociology given by, respectively, Haddon and Westermarck. However, Schumpeter not-ed in a footnote in his posthumous History of Economic Analysis that he also attended Webbʼs lectures on “methods of social investigation.” The present author has previously demonstrated that the LSE lectures delivered by Haddon and Westermarck may have enabled Schumpeter to overcome outmoded ideas of “evolutionism” （which assumed autonomous development and unilineal developmental stages derived from the Enlightenment） and thoughts of “natural law.” Close examination of the lectures delivered at the LSE support the authorʼs previous hypothesis. Further, that examination reveals that Webbʼs lectures delivered in October 1907 could have exerted a defining impact on Schumpeterʼs thoughts on economics. For example, in Webbʼs lecture plans, such items as “The great man as a ferment” and “Possibility of predicting effects of a given social environment on average humans in the immediate future” can be found. Those lectures at the LSE include many key points related to Schumpeterʼs basic as-sumptions about dynamics and economic development. JEL classification numbers: B25, B31, Z13.