1.4: A National System: Friedrich List
A German-American economist, Georg Frederich List (1789–1846), described a similar series of stages to what Adam Smith had listed, but he went a step further. He explained that countries might need to temporarily protect their infant industries through tariffs or quotas from foreign competition until these industries mature because "these transitions cannot take place automatically through the "natural course of things", such as through market forces".
Read this biographical article about Friedrich List. It offers some context for his refinements to Smith's ideas, based on List's wealth of experiences.
Read this short excerpt from List's work. In particular, note how his ideas about a "national system of political economy" would come to shape economic policy.