Seckendorff as an Economist in Comparison with Contemporary Writers

Seckendorff’s economic writings are compared with contemporary writers, most importantly with Johann Joachim Becher. There are considerable differences between Seckendorff and Becher with respect to character of personality and also with respect to the political environments within which they acted. Differences in the substance of their writings can often be attributed to these two factors. Seckendorff puts significantly more emphasis on general conditions of production, such as reliability of legal framework, a stable monetary system, etc., while he devotes less attention to interventionist measures of promotion of trades. Therefore, Seckendorff implicitly relies more on the spontaneous forces of economic activity. In comparison, Becher, with his activist eand even impatient attitude, advocates the launching of spectacular projects to accelerate economic development, supporting his proposals with theoretical arguments. There are also important aspects on which their views converge.