Revolutionary Economics in Principle and Practice: John Wesley and Hans Nielsen
Abstract
Economic thought in Europe has long been influenced by leaders of religious movements. We compare the economic principles and the movements of two prominent leaders: John Wesley in early eighteenth-century England and Hans Nielsen Hauge in late eighteenth-century Norway. Their economic ideas were revolutionary at the time and provoked the established powers among business, clergy, and autocracy. Although both had different backgrounds, appealed to dissimilar groups, and operated in different societies, they drew on the same sources in their economic thinking and developed similar economic principles. While their ideas were overlapping, their responses to the pressure of the establishment and their involvement in transforming principles into practice were quite different. Consequently, Wesleyan and Haugian thinking had disparate economic and social implications in the two countries.