The socio-economic history of Lithuania from the 16th to the 19th century (until 1861) from the perspective of economic development concepts

Abstract

The article is devoted to the presentation of the economic conceptions of the most influential non-Marxist (Karl Bücher, Max Weber) and neo-Marxists (Witold Kula, Immanuel Wallerstein) disclosing their analytical value in the investigations of the typologization of Lithuania‘s social economic history in the 16th-19th centuries (up to 1861). It is established that K. Bücher’s and M. Weber’s conceptions of economic development are best suited to analyze the qualitative changes in the organization of the economic life of the most developed countries in Western Europe (primarily – England) rather than the socio-economic reality of the less developed countries. For the research of the latter better suited are the Marxist (W. Kula‘s model of the feudal economy) and the neo-Marxist (I. Wallerstein’s capitalist world-system conception) concepts analyzing the economic development of less developed countries. The typological diagnosis of Lithuania‘s social economic history in the 16th-19th centuries (up to 1861) is presented.