Abstract. Alexandru D. Xenopol (1847-1920), a leading figure of the Romanian intellectual tradition of the turn of the century – academician, economist, philosopher, historian, educator, sociologist and writer – has remained in the universal cultural memory as a tireless promoter of the economic empowerment of the Romanian inhabited territories. Encyclopaedic, visionary and lucid mind, Alexandru D. Xenopol dedicated his work to searching the elements of the compatibility of the Romanians with the modernity and globalization in the cultural, educational and economic history of our people. Alexandru D. Xenopol has not remain unnoticed; scientists of this country, such as Nicolae Iorga, paid an homage to his great intellectual value: "educated in the best traditions of the economic school of the mid nineteenth century, and above all, a man with a philosophical mind, comfortable with abstractions and with an endless love for subtle links between them" (Iorga, 1975, p.190). The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of the spread of economic ideas in shaping the Romanian economic development stage.

Keywords: economic education; industry; institutions; protectionism; economic emancipation.