Schäffle, ALBERT EBERHARD FRIEDRICH, political economist of the historical or evolutionary school, was born 24th February 1831 at Nürtingen in Württemberg, studied theology at Tübingen, and, after spending some time on the editorial staff of a newspaper, became professor of Political Economy at Tübingen in 1861, and in 1868 at Vienna.
He had sat in the Württemberg diet, and in 1871 was for a short time Austrian minister of commerce. In that year he returned to Stuttgart, devoting himself to literary labours. His chief works are Die Nationalökonomie (1861; 3d ed. with a new title, Das Gesellschaftliche System der Menschlichen Wirtschaft, 1873), Kapitalismus und Sozialismus (1870), Quintessenz des Sozialismus (1874; 8th ed. 1885; Eng. trans. 1889), Grundsätze der Steuerpolitik (1880)—besides the work cited at POLITICAL ECONOMY.