[1] The school considered itself the intellectual heirs of past figures who had emphasised empiricism and induction, such as Francis Bacon and Adam Smith.
They rejected the hypothesis of "the profit maximizing individual" or the "calculus of pleasure and pain" as the only basis for economic analysis and policy.
[4] Historical economists of the nineteenth century also rejected the view that economic policy prescriptions, however derived, would apply universally, without regard to place or time, as followers of the Ricardian and Marshallian schools did.
"[5]John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte, and Herbert Spencer appear among the influences on the English historical economists.
"[7] Historical economists viewed classical and neoclassical economics as too formal and as a rationalisation of free-trade policies[1] in a colonial and imperial setting.