Niall Ferguson Quotes
Why was it, if you were a wealthy European industrialist in the 19th century, you would also most likely be a Protestant. There had been a shift of economic power from Catholic Countries like Italy and Spain towards Protestant countries like England and Germany? It seemed as if there were some kind of connection between the content of your faith—the form of your worship and your economic fortunes… What was it about Protestantism that made people not only work harder but save and accumulate capital?
His answer was what Max Weber called “The Protestant Work Ethic.”
Niall Ferguson, Political & Economic Historian, PBS, The West & The Rest with Niall Ferguson, May 29, 2012
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This quotation was written long before the “Protestant work ethic” was coined and well defined. Even though Say was a Frenchman from a Catholic country, he and most other serious economists and politicians recognized this vast difference.
The problem he described in 1938 was “solved” over the next decade, but then arose again with the advent of the “military industrial complex” during the Eisenhower administration. Reform made things better and then it began to emerge again in the latter part of the 20th century. This problem seems to go through cycles of abuse and reform.
Much if the American industrial revolution was assisted by government subsidies of one kind or another. Railroads, telegraph, armaments, foundries are just a few.
While generally true, Mises here again exaggerates his “proof” by selectively ignoring or being ignorant of counter-examples. The Roman Catholic Church is a classic counter-example where priests, monks, and others owned nothing as individuals, but produced some great science (eg Gregor Mendel), art (the illuminated texts of the middle ages), literature (St Thomas Aquinas, etc). The best counter example that was just evident in the last decade of Misis’ life is Communist Russia. Russian science was better than Fance and Germany and second only to the United States. The Russian ballet and orchestras were second to none. Great literature came out of the Soviet Union and the best of it complained about and attacked the Soviet system of the times. In general, Mises principle tended to be correct throughout history but not always as he dogmatically stated.
Note that this statement was made long before the Second World War.
Niall Campbell Ferguson is a Scottish historian and the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Previously, he was a professor at Harvard University, the London School of Economics and New York University, visiting professor at New College of the Humanities and senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford.
