Its fundamental principles are dated to his Grundriss zu Vorlesungen über die Staatswirtschaft nach geschichtlicher Methode (1843).

[1] Politically, Roscher remained faithful to the liberalism of Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, which abjured revolution and anarchy but favored reform within the context of a constitutional monarchy.

[2] Roscher tried to establish the laws of economic development by using the historical method from the investigation of histories legal, political, cultural and other aspects.

Roscher developed a cyclical theory where nations and their economies pass through youth, manhood and senile decay: "The method of a science is of greater significance by far than any single discovery, however amazing the later may be."

[3] In 1857 his Zur Geschichte der Englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre im sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhundert (On the History of English Political Economy in the 16th and 17th Century) was published.