Eli Filip Heckscher

Born Nov. 24, 1879, in Stockholm; died there, Dec. 23, 1952. Swedish historian and economist.

From 1909 to 1944, Heckscher was a professor of political economy and economic history at the Stockholm School of Economics, and from 1929 to 1949 he directed the Institute of Economic History in Stockholm. Heckscher’s works represented the first steps toward the systematic study of the economic history of Sweden and constituted an important stage in the development of Swedish historiography. Hekscher’s study Mercantilism was translated into a number of European languages and provoked much discussion among economic historians in many countries during the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s.