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An important issue within the framework of economic theory has always been the problem of the relationship between free trade and protectionist measures to protect domestic production. At a certain stage, the ideology of free trade (developed by Adam Smith, David Ricardo) became the mainstream of economic thought. Later, within the framework of the German Historical school, an important contribution was made by the economist Friedrich List, who proposed the concept of educational protectionism as an alternative to the free trade ideology of classical political economy. In this article it is proposed to analyze the main ideas and arguments of the concept of educational protectionism and compare them with the argumentation of other economic schools. Were described the characteristics of the German Historical school. It was shown, that despite some similar ideas, the concept of educational protectionism is very different from mercantilist ideas, this concept does not deny free trade direction from a historical perspective, but in some way offers a way of transition to free trade policy. The institutional and economic restrictions, that F. List considers for the success of protectionist policy, were analyzed. The reaction to the concept of educational protectionism was shown, both from the point of view of the role of this concept in economic policy in Russia, and from the point of view of a negative attitude towards this concept from socialist thought, including Rudolf Hilferding. It can be concluded that the concept of educational protectionism also turned out to be largely utopian, but it played an important role in expanding the boundaries of the discussion about free trade and the factors determining this trade policy.