Free‐economics: The vision of reformer Silvio Gesell

Abstract

During the first decades of the 20th century, German Reformer Silvio Gesell (1862‐1930) championed with a certain success the reforming wave of the epoch by complementing ingenious solutions to some of the most important economic issues of his time with theoretical insights that were as radical as they were penetrating. The purpose of this paper is to offer an introduction to such intuitions, whose validity had been recognized even by a few distinguished academics of the 1930s, but which, owing to the extreme complications that eventually mired German intellectual production in its quasi‐entirety before WWII, failed to preserve the deserved consideration, however slight, they had earned when first formulated. A reappraisal of Gesell's contributions, considering the importance of his main themes, may be worthwhile, all the more so as these deal with questions unsolved to this day.

Citation

Giacomo Preparata, G. and Elliott, J.E. (2004), "Free‐economics: The vision of reformer Silvio Gesell", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 31 No. 10, pp. 923-954. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290410555408