Carl Menger on the Theory of Economic History. Reflections from Bulgaria

Abstract

Carl Menger founded the Austrian School of economics at the end of the 19th century. He rejected some of the main ideas of the German Historical School in his work Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics (1881). The submitted paper presents the main implications of the investigations on the theory of economic history with a special reference to the economic history and history of economic thought of the Balkans. The emphasis is on the methodological subjectivism, spontaneous order, rejection of the teleological understanding of the process of economic development, and the application of mathematical models. These principles could be used as a theoretical base of the historical research, though they are widely underestimated in modern economic history.

Key words: Menger, Historical school, Economic history.
JEL: B13, B15, N01.