German Free-Trade Liberalism

German liberalism of the free-trade 'Manchester' school produced some of the most advanced philosophers and political economists in the history of free-trade and libertarianism. The Austrian school itself is a product of advanced German liberalism and Continental and English political economy. The movement was, however, relatively weak and eventually was overthrown by social democrats (including Marxists) and social nationalists.

The following are some essays and articles on German free-trade liberalism.
Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century by Ralph Raico

"In this essay, liberalism will be understood to mean the doctrine which holds that society — that is, the social order minus the state — more or less runs itself, within the bounds of assured individual rights. In the classical statement, these are the rights to life, liberty, and property.
This is closer to the French meaning of libéralisme, rather than the meaning that liberalism has acquired in the United States, Britain, Canada, even in Germany and other countries. In this respect, the French have remained true to the original and historical conception of liberalism. It is not by accident that the French term laissez-faire is used throughout the world as a synonym for the freely-functioning economy.

Understanding liberalism as grounded in the self-regulating capacity of society is even, I believe, methodologically necessary, in order to enable us, as Anthony de Jasay writes, to distinguish liberalism from the other ideologies." - the text

Eugen Richter and Late German Manchester Liberalism by Ralph Raico

"Richter fought the state-socialist program proposed by Bismarck, including the nationalization of the Prussian railroads and the establishment of state monopolies for tobacco and brandy, and, naturally, Bismarck's turn towards protectionism, towards rendering dearer the cost of necessities, by which the great Chancellor, landowner, and hater of the "Manchester money-bags" manifested his compassion for the poor.

A "passionate opponent of cartels," Richter considered the planned tariff wall "the ideal nurturing ground for the formation of new cartels." While Richter, together with other liberal leaders, such as Ludwig Bamberger, supported the introduction of the gold standard in the newly formed Empire, unlike them he opposed the centralization of the banking system through the creation of a Reichsbank; such a central bank, he felt, would tend to privilege "big capital and big industry." - the text

John Prince Smith and the German Free-Trade Movement by Ralph Raico

"The great evil for the workers lies in this, that the profit on capi­tal and capital accumulation are to such a great extent diminished by state expenditures on unproductive purposes—the capitalists would be able to give to the people who work for them much more to consume, if they did not have to support so many peace-time soldiers besides, whose consumption is not reimbursed through labor. If the Swiss militia system were introduced in all European states, in a short time capital would so increase, wages would so rise, that there would be no more question of want in the working class. Here lies the solution of the worker-question." - John Prince Smith, The Market

Pictures of the Socialistic Future by Eugen Richter
Discussed by Andy Duncan 

"From the outset, many questioned the practicality of the socialists’ solution. After you equalize incomes, who will take out the garbage? Yet almost no one questioned the socialists’ idealism. By 1961, however, the descendents of the radical wing of the Social Democratic Party had built the Berlin Wall—and were shooting anyone who tried to flee their “Workers’ Paradise.” A movement founded to liberate the worker turned its guns on the very people it vowed to save.
Who could have foreseen such a mythic transformation? Out of all the critics of socialism, one stands out as uniquely prescient: Eugen Richter (1838–1906). During the last decades of the nineteenth century, he was the leading libertarian in the German Reichstag, as well as the chief editor of the Freisinnige Zeitung. Seventy years before the Wall, Richter’s dystopian novel, Pictures of the Socialistic Future, boldly predicted that victorious German socialism would inspire a mass exodus—and that the socialists would respond by banning emigration, and punishing violators with deadly force." - Bryan Caplan, forward to the text

Wilhelm von Humboldt by Ralph Raico

"The true end of man — not that which capricious inclination prescribes for him, but that which is prescribed by eternally immutable reason — is the highest and most harmonious cultivation of his faculties into one whole. For this cultivation, freedom is the first and indispensible condition."- Humboldt