Marianne Herzfeld, Die Außenhandelslehre des Grafen Karl Zinzendorf: Eine deutsche Freihandelslehre aus dem 18. Jahrhundert (1919)

Marianne Herzfeld reconstructs Karl Zinzendorf’s foreign-trade doctrine as an eighteenth-century German contribution to economic liberalism. Connecting his intellectual formation with Austrian administrative practice, she examines how criticism of commercial restrictions developed into a general argument for freer exchange. Her account places particular weight on his 1771 Gedanken über die Zölle und Mauthen, alongside biographical and administrative materials.

Das blieb einem Manne vorbehalten, der den Anstoß hierzu von zwei verschiedenen Seiten empfing, nämlich dem Grafen Karl von Zinzendorf.

English translation: This remained reserved for a man who received the impulse to it from two different sides, namely Count Karl von Zinzendorf.

This attribution connects Zinzendorf’s experience of Austrian administrative practice with his study of English economic theorists. Herzfeld distinguishes his theoretical contribution from the broader practical opposition to commercial prohibitions within Austrian administration. Resistance to restrictions was not uniquely his; his importance lay in grounding it in general economic reasoning. Prosperity under protection, on this account, did not establish protection’s beneficial effects, since freer commerce might have produced greater prosperity.

The foundation of Zinzendorf’s position is international interdependence. Differences in climate, resources, and productive capacities make exchange an enduring source of mutual advantage. His providential understanding of these differences supports specialization: countries should develop activities suited to their circumstances and obtain other goods through trade. The appropriate objective of commercial policy is therefore affordable, good-quality provision for consumers, rather than privileges for selected producers.

Herzfeld connects this consumer orientation with governmental impartiality. Import restrictions concentrate benefits among protected interests while spreading their costs across consumers. Competition can lower prices, improve quality, and stimulate domestic producers through comparison with foreign goods. Export restrictions likewise damage agriculture by narrowing markets and weakening incentives to expand cultivation. Prohibitions also encourage smuggling, diminish revenue, and undermine public authority.

Herzfeld emphasizes Zinzendorf’s combination of practical criticism and theoretical justification:

So war er denn einer der ersten, die bewußt und konsequent für den Freihandel eintraten und ihr Verhalten auch theoretisch zu begründen suchten.

English translation: Thus he was one of the first who consciously and consistently advocated free trade and who also sought to give their conduct a theoretical foundation.

The discussion of the trade balance situates him within the controversy over commercial success and national wealth. Herzfeld contrasts his reception of English arguments with Sonnenfels’s incomprehension of Hume’s criticism of the mercantilist balance-of-trade doctrine.

The central issue is whether an export surplus necessarily enriches a nation. Zinzendorf’s critique extends beyond the incompleteness of customs statistics: debts, interest, and financial transfers complicate the measurement of international payments, but awareness of these complications was not itself novel. More consequential is the argument that monetary inflows raise prices and eventually weaken competitiveness. A permanently favourable balance consequently cannot serve as a sustainable policy objective. Imports and exports are interdependent, while prosperous neighbours can provide expanding markets rather than merely threatening domestic producers.

Herzfeld also identifies qualifications within Zinzendorf’s liberalism. His preference for agriculture at certain points suggests Physiocratic influence, while his acceptance of higher duties on imported luxuries limits the unrestricted application of consumer choice. He distinguishes luxuries from workers’ necessities, whose taxation can increase wages and production costs. Occasional concern to retain money domestically also sits uneasily beside his rejection of monetary accumulation as a general measure of wealth.

Customs duties nevertheless retain a legitimate fiscal role. Moderate rates, simpler tariffs, favourable treatment of productive inputs, and inexpensive transit can support commerce while yielding public revenue. Zinzendorf’s programme thus combines criticism of restrictive principles with attention to administrative feasibility: opposition to prohibitions does not necessarily entail their immediate abolition.

Herzfeld’s historical assessment separates theoretical anticipation from systematic achievement. Zinzendorf developed arguments associated with Hume toward a more consistently free-trading position without constructing a synthesis comparable to Adam Smith’s. Her recovery of his doctrine locates economic liberalism within the interaction of intellectual exchange and Austrian governmental practice, showing how arguments later associated with canonical economists acquired earlier, locally distinctive formulations.