1848 : a primeira crise da teoria económica

Abstract

Este artigo tem por objecto o esclarecimento de uma conjuntura particular na história das ideias económicas, especificamente a de 1848. Este foi um ano de crise económica, financeira, política mas também de crise das ideias económicas. Desta crise resultou o abalar da hegemonia da escola clássica em geral e uma recomposição do campo das ideias económicas, designadamente das de natureza teórica. Procura-se fundamentalmente esclarecer os contornos e os mecanismos daquela recomposição, designadamente as condições que determinaram a manutenção da hegemonia da escola clássica e em particular a nova configuração que esta assumiu.This paper aims at clarifying a specific period in the history of the economic ideas: 1848. It was an year of economic, financial, political crisis, which inevitably led also to a crisis in the field of economic ideas. The classical economy at large, as the mainstream economic school, was questioned leaving ground to a recomposition in the field of the economic ideas, especially concerning its theoretical nature. The basic features and mechanisms of that recomposition are examined to understand the determinant conditions for the classical school to remain as the mainstream school, even if it took a new configuration.

This paper aims at clarifying a specific period in the history of the economic ideas: 1848. It was an year of economic, financial, political crisis, which inevitably led also to a crisis in the field of economic ideas. The classical economy at large, as the mainstream economic school, was questioned leaving ground to a recomposition in the field of the economic ideas, especially concerning its theoretical nature. The basic features and mechanisms of that recomposition are examined to understand the determinant conditions for the classical school to remain as the mainstream school, even if it took a new configuration.