Rutkowski, Jan

Born Apr. 8, 1886, in Warsaw; died May 21, 1949, in Poznań. Polish historian and economist. Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1932).

Rutkowski became a professor at the University of Poznan in 1919. His works cover the entire economic history of Poland up to the beginning of the 20th century, with the problems of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries treated in particular detail. The use of the comparative historical method of analysis is characteristic. Although Rutkowski grasped some elements of the Marxist conception of socioeconomic relations, his conceptual scheme, in which the structure of income distribution was accorded key significance, did not, on the whole, go beyond bourgeois political economy.