Petru Sebesanu Aurelian -- The First Economist of the Romanian Academy.

Petru Sebeşanu Aurelian was born in Slatina on December 13, 1833 and he died in Bucharest on January 24, 1909. He is one of the most prominent people in the 19th century Romania. Agricultural engineer, politician, and one of the greatest Romanian economists, Petru Sebeşanu Aurelian was a strong supporter of Romania's progress and independence, both in practice, through his professional and political activity, and in theory, through the ideas he put across in his writings. Petru Sebeşanu Aurelian was an advocate of mercantilism and economic nationalism. He was especially concerned with the possible ways to reduce the economic gap between Romania and the more developed countries and considered that Romania's economy had to rely upon agriculture, and yet not neglect industry. In this paper we will try to identify the main coordinates of the paradigm within which Aurelian laid down the solutions for Romanian's modernization in his times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]