Unified Rule Approach and the Semantic Enrichment of Economic Movement Data

Background

Research in contemporary economic history is dominated by two opposing approaches which can be defined roughly by their distinct methodological partiality either for quantification (positivist approach) or for qualitative narration (hermeneutic approach).

In economic history, the proponents of a positivist approach argue that, to be scientific, economic history must quantify. Followers of this approach have developed systematic methods of quantification and corresponding methods of transposition of facts into numerical systems. We wish to emphasize that by putting quantification center stage this approach has made a significant contribution to economic history.

In contrary to the positivist way of thinking, the proponents of the narrative-semantic approach have been much less concerned with methodological issues. The use of numerical data and statistics is common practice, and no verdict is issued against quantification. Still, the narrative-semantic approach favors strongly the qualitative over the quantitative aspects of the historical record. The weak point of this approach is the lack of a systematic methodological and ontological position.