Cameralism
Andre Wakefield*
Pitzer College,Claremont Colleges,Claremont,CA,USA
Definition
Cameralism was an aspiring profession during the venteenth and eighteenth centuries;it thrived in the small territories of the Holy Roman Empire.Academic cameralists,using law and medicine as their models,constructed a system of auxiliary sciences–largely natural,economic,and techno-logical sciences–to support the training of future state rvants in the German lands.This system of professional knowledge,known as the cameral sciences,was taught at German universities during the eighteenth century.As a professional model,cameralism ultimately lost out to jurisprudence,but the discour that it spawned extended well beyond the German lands into Austria-Hungary, Scandinavia,and the Italian states.
Introduction
Historians of economic thought often treat their discipline like physics or chemistry,which is to say, th
ey regard it as a positive science.In this,they follow Milton Friedman.“Economics as a positive science,”he famously argued,“is a body of tentatively accepted generalizations about economic phenomena that can be ud to predict the conquences of changes in circumstances”(Friedman 1953).To regard economics as a positive science has implications for the way we write its history. Chemistry had its phlogiston;astronomy had its Ptolemaic system;and economics had its preclassical period.Lavoisier,Copernicus,and Adam Smith play the heroes,relegating older theories to the dustbin of history.The narrative of positive science has,for quite some time, motivated dictionaries and encyclopedias like this one.As the great Inglis Palgrave put it,such compendia“show what has actually been written in former times,and hence will enable the reader to trace the progress of economic thought”(Palgrave1987).
In a world where Adam Smith and his intellectual progeny play the heroes,it becomes clear what is left for English mercantilists,German cameralists,and other“backward”theorists:they play the foils against which the stories of disciplinary progress get written.H.C.Recktenwald’s entry in the New Palgrave did just that.“Analytical economics,insights into the laws of the market and the study of the interaction between market and state,”he explained,“are relatively unknown in the simple textbooks of the cameralists,which show otherwi sound common n”(Recktenwald1987). Cameralism ha
s been variously defined as a German variant of mercantilism,a university science, a theory of government and society,a baroque science,a political science,an early modern economic theory,and an administrative technology(Roscher1874;Tribe1988;Small1909;Lindenfeld1997; Schumpeter1954).Karl Marx just called it a“silly mish-mash of notions inflicted on aspiring bureaucrats”(Marx and Engels1961–1974).There is some truth in all of it.The dominant narrative, however,has long treated cameralism as a subt of English mercantilism.As Recktenwald put it, cameralism“is the specific version of mercantilism,taught and practid in the German *Email:andre_wakefield@pitzer.edu
principalities(Kleinstaaten)in the17th and18th centuries”(Recktenwald1987).Nineteenth-and
early twentieth-century writers discovered broad lines of agreement between mercantilism and
cameralism(Roscher1874).Certainly,cameralism shared important family remblances with
mercantilism–a commitment to statebuilding,in both political and economic terms,through
policies such as import substitution and the industrialization of raw materials(Reinert2005).
Cameralism has also been analyzed as an important early model for and an inspiration for alternativ
e
approaches to publicfinance(Backhaus and Wagner2004).
But there have been dissonant voices along the way.Writing in1909,the American sociologist
Albion Small suggested that historians of economics had mischaracterized German cameralists.“Cameralism,”he argued,“was an administrative technology.It was not an inquiry into the abstract principles of wealth,in the Smithian n”(Small1909).Small had a good point becau
cameralists wrote a lot and most of it did not involve what we would call“economics.”Magdelena
Humpert’s bibliography of cameralist literature included more than14,000printed sources
(Humpert1937).Not many of tho pages(numbering in their millions)included general discus-
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sions about balance of trade or bullionism.Open a cameralist text and you will be more likely tofind
chapters describing lead smelting,gardening,brewing beer,raising pigs,forestry,and hard-rock
mining than,say,general principles of trade.The particulars have most often been ignored in
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accounts of cameralism as a political or economic theory,but they highlight an important fact:
cameralism owed much to the Kammer,orfiscal chamber,a specialized collegial body dedicated to
administering the sovereignfinances(Zielenziger1914).词根字典
More recently,Keith Tribe redefined cameralism as“a university science,”placing great weight
on the context and practice of university instruction and rejecting the significance of administrative
practice for the production of cameralist texts.Instead,Tribe looked to the context of pedagogy and
discursive formations.“The two prime influences on the texts,”he argued,“were the actual
teaching situation and the Wolffian philosophy which informed their style and was itlf very largely
a product of pedagogic practice”(Tribe1988).Of paramount importance,then,were the“discursive
conditions”under which the texts were produced.Tribe’s approach reprented a radical departure
from earlier scholarship on the subject for he treated cameralism as a lf-contained academic
discour,parating the production of the cameral sciences completely from the context offiscal
administration.He also greatly expanded the traditional canon of cameralism by examining hun-
dreds of cameralist texts,many of which were ud in university instruction.
support是什么意思Tribe’s intervention,in turn,prompted other scholars to think more systematically about the
relationship between the cameral sciences and administrative practice.Perhaps,as Tribe argued,
there was no necessary relationship between the two;or perhaps,as Small and others had long
maintained,the cameral sciences reflected administrative practice.For some of the more prominent
cameralist authors,however,it turns out that there was a relationship between discour and
administrative practice,though not a transparent one.The cameral sciences,that is,did not simply
reflect everyday practice in the bureaus.Rather,published cameralist texts–canonical works by Veit
Ludwig von Seckendorff and Johann von Justi among them–were characterized by a pragmatic
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utopianism that painted the world as it should be,even as they purported to describe the world as it
was.The increasing tendency to treat cameralism as a unique historical formation has challenged the
historiographical tradition that relegated the cameral sciences to marginal status in the history of
economic thought(Sandl1999;Tribe1988;Wakefield2009).
Historical Development
By the venteenth century most German territories,large and small,had developed Kammer to
manage the intimate affairs of princes,dukes,kings,and emperors(Heß1962;Klinkenborg1915).
By the cond half of the venteenth century,members of the Kammer began to be recognized as a
distinct group.People started calling them cameralists.Every responsiblefiscal official was
expected to know his way around a mine or a barleyfield,becau tho were the appropriate “ordinary”sources of revenue for his prince,such as income from the mines.(“Extraordinary”sources of revenue,such as direct taxation in times of crisis,were en as illegitimate and even
despotic in many German territories.)Cameralism was structured by the material and institutional
realities offiscal administration in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the wake of the Thirty Years War,the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire were a mess,
devastated,and depopulated.The Peace of Westphalia(1648)recognized more than300sovereign
territories,ranging widely in size,wealth,and power.For the next200years,the Empire rved,in
the words of Mack Walker,as an“incubator,”protecting smaller territories against aggressive
incursions from more powerful neighbors(Walker1971).The economic and political structure of
the Empire at once protected and limited the states within it.Cameralists had to accept the
limitations,as the ruler of each territory became a kind of entrepreneur eking to profit from the
natural and human resources in his territory.
Insofar as cameralists sought to systematize the daily work offiscal administration,they faced
great obstacles,becau the logic of every Kammer was distinct,attuned to the local resources of a
particular territory or region.The Holy Roman Empire,with its hundreds of kingdoms,duchies,
principalities,and bishoprics,prented a staggering diversity of administrative structures,geogra-
phy,and economic activities.Accordingly,cameralistsfilled their books with endless detail about
the territories in which they lived and worked.This has led authors to suggest that the cameral
sciences were descriptive sciences,models of“practical reasoning”that avoided the utopian
thinking of nineteenth-century economics(Lindenfeld1997).It was not,however,always that
straightforward.Sometimes,utopian thinking masqueraded as practical,utilitarian knowledge.
Cameralists liked to publish“practical”treatis about how to brew beer or rai cattle,for example,
and they often made it sound easy.But practical success in agriculture or manufacturing was never
easy,which is why failure was the rule when it came to new state ventures.In this respect,
cameralists were utopian pragmatists,imaginingfields full of healthy crops and fat cows,even as
the people drank mirable beer and struggled to feed themlves.
In1727Frederick William I of Prussia established thefirst academic chairs in cameralism,
resolving to initiate lectures on“Cameralia,Oeconomica and Polizeisachen”at his universities in
Halle and Frankfurt an der Oder(Stieda1906;Schrader1894).“To that end,”declared a cabinet
order from Berlin,the king had decided to establish a“special Profession,so that students could
getoveracquire a good foundation in the sciences before they are employed in state rvice.”Thefirst “professor of Cameralia”was Simon Peter Gasr,a Prussian War and Domains Councilor. Students at the University of Halle were encouraged to attend his lectures,and tho who received good recommendations from Gasr could expect special consideration when the time came to appoint new officials.The authorities in Berlin sketched an outline of topics for Gasr’s lectures. Frederick William’s new“profession”of cameralism demanded sweeping knowledge of Prussia’s material circumstances,its productive potential,and the complicated landscape of its rights and privileges.
Cameralism as Profession
After the formal establishment of academic cameralism in1727,cameralists throughout the Holy Roman Empire nd an opportunity to establish themlves professionally.We should not imagine the men as members of a political economic school,like the physiocrats,or as some early modern version of the Chicago School of Economics.Cameralist reformers had bigger dreams.They imagined their subject not as a discipline,such as history or mathematics,but as an entirely new academic profession.Cameralism,in other words,would be modeled on law and medicine.Johann von Justi,the most prominent of cameralist prolytizers,was very clear about this in his ground-breaking1755cameralist textbook,Staatswirthschaft.He suggested that the existing professional faculties of theology,law,and medicine be supplemented by a cameralist faculty(Tribe1988).The new professors would need to be skilled in areas ranging from forestry and manufactures to taxes and chemistry.“The professor of chemistry would be chon so that he could lecture on assaying and smelting,and not just the preparation he teacher of mechanics would be able to lecture on mining machinery,and the professor of Naturkunde would need adequate knowledge about the esnce of ores and of deposits.”There would be six professors in all,“to which one might add a teacher of civil and military engineering.”Not only would this new faculty train skilled future officials,but it would offer“advice for the many institutions and undertakings of the state,for which one must often turn to foreigners at great expen”(Justi1755a).
Behind the recitation of cameralist principles and material detail in hundreds of textbooks,then, there was a roiling debate about what it meant to be a cameralist.It was a struggle not so much over abstract principles of wealth creation as it was over professional identity.When“aspiring cameralists”flocked to places like Göttingen and Lautern to hear lectures in the cameral sciences, they were not just studying economic policies and the principles of good police,but they were also learning how to behave as members of the Kammer.It was not enough to know about budgeting and accounting,one had to be fashionable as well.The classic markers of scholarly culture–knowledge of Latin,learned disputation,reference to authoritative sources,and reading the textbook from a lectern–were rejected in favor of more gentlemanly approaches.Justi,when he arrived in Göttingen,was very specific about this.“I have employed a special teaching style in my cours.”He would,contrary to common practice,lecture for only thirty minutes.“Then I got down from my lectern and,standing together with my listeners,I spent the rest of the hour in free and sociable conversation about the lecture material”(Justi1755b).
It would be a mistake,therefore,to view the cameral sciences as nothing more than a t of political economic principles.For Justi,as for other cameralist reformers,the new profession reprented a new way of life and a new epistemology.One could not simply teach students to balance the books a
nd learn about revenue sources;equally important was the need to behave like a proper rvant of the Kammer.One had to know how gentlemen acted at court,how to make polite conversation,and how to avoid being a tedious pedant.Cameralism was thus a perfectfit with the new model universities of eighteenth-century Germany,notably Halle and Göttingen(two centers of the cameral sciences).Gerlach Adolf von M€u nchhaun,Hanoverian minister andfirst curator of the University of Göttingen,sought from the very beginning to attract young noblemen and wealthy students to his university.Like the ideal classroom of Justi’s reveries,M€u nchhaun’s university aimed to attract fashionable and wealthy students.M€u nchhaun focud on building nice streets, coffee hous,and impressive academic buildings as a way to attract the right kind of student.For him,utility meant the ability to attract wealthy students to Göttingen from around the Holy Roman Empire,and even from England.For this,one would need famous professors and fashionable knowledge.From this perspective the cameral sciences,fashionable sciences designed to appeal to
wealthy noblemen,were perfect.M€u nchhaun brought Justi to Göttingen in1755,the same year in
which his Staatswirthschaft,the most influential of cameralist textbooks,appeared in print
(Wakefield2009).
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Cameralism,as imagined by Justi and M€u nchhaun,was not a stand-alone science like econom-
ics or sociology;it was a system of professional education.During the latter half of the eighteenth
century,reformers worked to create cameralist faculties throughout the lands of the Holy Roman
Empire.Cameralist reformers managed to alter university curricula,establish new academies,and
found parate university faculties(Stieda1906;Tribe1988;Klippel1995).In many cas,they
even instituted examinations and succeeded in making access to coveted state offices contingent on
academic study of the cameral sciences(Bleek1972).In Göttingen,M€u nchhaun worked for
decades to build a system of“auxiliary sciences”that would create the structure necessary for a
cameralist faculty.This involved,most of all,building a system of natural sciences that could rve
to train aspiring cameralists.M€u nchhaun ran into trouble with the other higher faculties–notably
law and medicine–in his efforts to harness auxiliary sciences in the rvice of cameralism.
Eventually,though,M€u nchhaun built a system of sciences,ranging from“economic botany”to “technology,”which rved as auxiliary sciences to train future state rvants(Wakefield2009). Göttingen was not alone.In Lautern,200miles to the southwest,Friedrich Casimir Medicus
founded a freestanding cameralist academy(Kameral-Hohe-Schule).Lautern reprents the mature
example of a professionalizing cameralist curriculum.Hoping to avoid the stubborn traditional
faculties and their privileges,Medicus decided to sidestep them altogether by appointing permanent
professors to teach subjects such as chemistry,economic botany,technology,and agriculture.For
Medicus,it was crucial to have one or two professors dedicated entirely to the natural sciences,
becau they were the“true foundation upon which all the knowledge of the future state adminis-
trator rests,and without which he will never be able to make one sure step forward.One mustfirmly
guarantee that no young man who has failed to study the with zeal is allowed to pass on to the
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property是什么意思Science of Sources”(Wakefield2009).Lautern’s focus on cultivating the“source sciences”made
n as a strategy for developing the many small and landlocked territories of the Holy Roman
Empire.For the principalities and duchies,the constant,intensive improvement of very limited
territorial domains–what Sophus Reinert has called“ersatz imperialism”–proved more appealing
than on the restless,expansionist ambitions of colonial enterpris(Reinert2011). Conclusion and Future Directions
The historiography on cameralism stretches back at least two centuries and,as could be expected,
that literature records many shifts in approach,definition,and methodology.There is,in other words,cure是什么意思
no single agreed-upon definition of cameralism;instead,we have a shifting and multifaceted debate
about the nature of cameralism and its significance.The most widespread approach to cameralism
treats it as a variety of mercantilism,taught and practiced in the German lands of the eighteenth
century.Others have treated cameralism as an administrative technology,specifically adapted to the
small German territories of the Holy Roman Empire.Still others have defined it as a university
science,subject to the pedagogical and discursive conditions prent in eighteenth-century German
academic ttings.It has also been analyzed as a literature that functioned as public relations for the
early modernfiscal policy states of central Europe.
The lack of general agreement about what,exactly,cameralism was(or was not)provides fertile
ground for further rearch.There is much to be done.Recent work has tended to emphasize that
cameralist discour was not limited to the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire,the traditional
