Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob


Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob was a German philosopher, political scientist and economist. During the French occupation of Germany, he worked as a consultant and professor in Russia.

Biography

He was born at Wettin, Duchy of Magdeburg; in 1777 he entered the University of Halle. In 1780 he was appointed teacher at the gymnasium, and in 1791 professor of philosophy at the university. He was very popular as a lecturer on metaphysics, but after 1800 turned his attention especially to political economy.
The suppression of the University of Halle having been decreed by Napoleon, Jakob left for the Russian Empire, where in 1807 he was appointed professor of political economy at Kharkoff University. In 1809, he was appointed a member of the government commission to inquire into the finances of Russia. He distinguished himself in this inquiry and received various tokens of regard from Alexander I. In 1810, he became president of the commission for the revision of criminal law, and at the same time he obtained an important office in the finance department, with the rank of counsellor of state.
In 1816, he returned to Halle to occupy the chair of political economy. He died at Lauchstädt.

Works

Shortly after his first appointment to a professorship in Halle, Jakob had begun to turn his attention rather to the practical than the speculative side of philosophy, and in 1805 he published at Halle Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, in which he was the first to advocate in Germany the necessity of a distinct science dealing specially with the subject of national wealth. His principal works are: