In the growth process, the economic cycle expands into a spiral that follows an exponential path during its ascent. To explain the drive and the possibility of pursuing this growth path, the dynamics of money, energy, and human imagination must be highlighted more clearly than is the case in conventional economic theory. Therefore, it is necessary to break free from the narrow confines of this theory, which is focused on explaining a timeless static equilibrium, and to open the theory to the inclusion of historical developments in which this dynamic unfolds. In this context, it becomes evident that revisiting older economic insights is helpful, as they have taken the temporal dimension of economics into account to a much greater extent. The theory of the growth spiral presented here...