In 1564, Leonhard Fronsperger, a military expert and citizen of the Free Imperial City of Ulm in Upper Germany, publishes the booklet “On the Praise of Self-Interest” (“Von dem Lob deß Eigen Nutzen”). Using the form of a satirical poem, he demonstrates how the individual pursuit of self-interest can lead to the common good. Writing long before Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith, Fronsperger presents a thorough analysis of all kinds of self-interested social, political, and economic relations. His praise of self-interest demonstrates how, over the sixteenth century, the interplay of economic success (in particular in major trading cities), a more realistic conception of human behavior, and some aspects of humanism and the Reformation led to a new understanding of the origins of economic dynamics. This becomes the basis for what Max Weber ([1904–05] 2009) would later term “the spirit of capitalism.”

中文翻译：

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上德意志“资本主义精神”的形成：LEONHARD FRONSPERGER的“自利论”

1564 年，军事专家兼上德意志自由皇城乌尔姆的公民莱昂哈德·弗朗斯佩格出版了小册子《论自我利益的赞美》（“Von dem Lob deß Eigen Nutzen”）。以讽刺诗的形式，他展示了个人对自身利益的追求如何导致共同利益。早在伯纳德·曼德维尔和亚当·斯密之前，弗朗斯伯格就对各种自私自利的社会、政治和经济关系进行了透彻的分析。他对自利的赞扬表明，在 16 世纪，经济成功（尤其是在主要贸易城市）、更现实的人类行为概念以及人文主义和宗教改革的某些方面的相互作用如何导致对经济动态的起源。