Franz von Miller (economist)

Franz von Miller (* 1783 in Weitnau ; † 1842 in Darmstadt ) was an economist who advocated a uniform tariff regulation with the abolition of internal tariffs between the sub-territories in what was then economically fragmented German territory. Franz Miller, who was later ennobled, was a companion of Friedrich List for many years .

Life

Youth, studies, regional court

Franz Miller was born in Weitnau in the Allgäu. He studied law in Innsbruck . He got his first job in 1809 as head clerk at the district court of Weiler . In this position he was able to prevent a punitive action by the French Napoleonic troops against Weiler.

After the collapse of the Vorarlberg popular uprising in 1806, Napoléon commissioned his Commander-in-Chief, General Beaumont, with several punitive actions:

1. The arrest and execution of the general commissioner from Weiler im Allgäu, Dr. Anton Schneider . As a precaution, however, he surrendered to the Württemberg troops under Crown Prince Paul and thus escaped execution.
2. Burning down of Weiler, the main town of the West Allgäu resistance. The young court assessor Franz Miller, however, succeeded through his negotiating skills and his knowledge of French to keep Beaumont from the planned destruction of the place until the Württemberg troops under Crown Prince Karl arrived.
3. After the two failures, Beaumont then apparently tried all the more intensely to get his assignment to take 177 well-known Vorarlbergers and West Allgäuers hostage. For those imprisoned under false information, a long and painful odyssey through Europe began before they were finally allowed to return home to the relief of their relatives.

Co-founder and operator of a trading company

In 1810 Miller gave up his public position and turned to commercial law . In 1811, together with the manufacturers Johann Baptist König from Immenstadt and Franz Xaver Baldauf from Ebratshofen, he founded a "canvas trade partnership" in Immenstadt. This company developed far-reaching business relationships with places all over Germany, beyond that in Italy (here especially in Lombardy , Venice and Naples ), and also in France, Holland and Switzerland. Franz Miller, who spoke French, Italian, English and Dutch, conducted the correspondence and made the necessary business trips.

After ten years of business activity, the “canvas trade society” in Immenstadt had to stop its payments and dissolve in 1821. Its founder, Franz Miller, lost all of his fortune. But he was not discouraged by the personal economic fiasco.

Campaigner for trade and economic reforms

The background to the collapse of his company was, on the one hand, the poor framework conditions in the then agricultural country and the kingdom of Württemberg, which was poorly developed in terms of transport . The Württemberg king Wilhelm tried to counteract this with the help of his ingenious economist and reformer Friedrich List . Many people nevertheless saw emigration as the only way out of impoverishment ( pauperism ). The particularly difficult economic situation in the Western Allgäu after the Wars of Liberation made matters worse. Here, the main reason, in addition to several bad harvests, was the separation of the traditional economic areas of Austria (Napoleon had given Westallgäu to the Kingdom of Bavaria ) as well as the different commercial law provisions in the many German small states and the external customs barriers.

As early as 1819, a few years earlier, when the first financial difficulties for the canvas trading company appeared, Miller went on the offensive, made public statements on economic policy and called for reforms in lectures and writings.

Encounter with cunning and efforts to achieve uniform customs regulations

As early as 1811, the manufacturers Elch ( Kaufbeuren ), Pfeiffer ( Kempten ) and Frey (Immenstadt) had founded the German trade association . They regularly sent petitions to the Bundestag in Frankfurt and had Friedrich List at their side, who supported and revised the entries.

In 1819 Friedrich List finally founded the General German Trade and Industry Association . He himself became a so-called consultant , ie chief advisor or spokesman. However, Friedrich List soon appeared to the merchants to be too enterprising and his plans too daring. After differences of opinion, List resigned and appointed Franz Miller as consultant and successor, whom he had become aware of through his publishing activities.

In his new position, Miller saw an opportunity to implement his visions and goals. In 1820 he advised the southern German state delegation, which had come together in Darmstadt to prepare and establish a customs system that was acceptable to all. The negotiations proved extremely difficult and all too often resulted in arguments and mutual accusations. Eventually the conference ended with no result.

In 1823 the German “trade and industry association” dissolved. As a member of the state parliament in 1821, Friedrich List fell out with his clear criticism ( Reutlinger Petition ) with Parliament and the King and was sentenced to 10 months in prison, of which he served 5 and then voluntarily emigrated to America.

Tax council in the service of the Württemberg state

Miller stayed in Darmstadt at the express request of the Württemberg King Wilhelm , whose Bundestag envoy, Karl August von Wangenheim , had recognized his special economic talent, his perseverance and his foresight. In 1823 Franz Miller entered the service of the Württemberg state as a tax councilor.

In 1828 he was able to make a significant contribution to the establishment of the Bavarian-Württemberg Customs Association , an institution which, together with the Prussian-Hessian and Central German Customs Union, wanted to counteract the economic division of Germany into a large number of small-state customs areas. The participating states lifted the customs barriers among themselves, agreed the tariffs at the external borders and divided the revenues according to an agreed key. The success paved the way for the overall solution that came into force on January 1, 1834 at the urging of Prussia, the establishment of the general German customs union . The idea, scientifically and journalistically prepared by Friedrich List, provided the decisive impetus for increasing production, trade and transport as well as the industrialization of Germany. It created the economic prerequisites for political unification with the founding of the empire in 1871, which also meant the natural end of the customs union.

For his services as a champion for the German Customs Union, Franz Miller was raised to the nobility. He died in Darmstadt in 1842 at the age of 59.

Friedrich List and Franz Miller

Friedrich List and Franz Miller were very close in their economic ideas; they supported and encouraged each other. They defended and spread their forward-looking ideas unwaveringly against reactionary, narrow-minded natures in state administration and trade circles. In this close spiritual partnership, their life path was quite opposite. The more impatient visionary Friedrich List was way ahead of his time, broke off a university and parliamentary career and then worked as a freelancer and for longer periods abroad. The more realistic Franz Miller experienced after legal public activity at the beginning sparse years of independent activity under difficult economic conditions and was later recognized by the acceptance into the civil service and finally the elevation to the nobility.

Services

His services to the unification of customs and the revitalization of trade secure Franz von Miller a place in the German history of the 19th century. The hamlet of Weiler im Allgäu owes it to him for being saved from planned destruction by Napoleon.

Works / writings

Lectures and writings z. B .:

• "The linen trade, an excellent source of patriotic prosperity." (1819)
• "Words to heart to the German princes and peoples about the sad situation of the patriotic trade and the need for quick remedial action." (1819)
• "About a maximum of tariffs between the southern German states ..." (1822)
• Articles in the "Organ for the German commercial and factory status."

attachment

literature

• Dr. Georg Wagner: "Franz von Miller and the German Customs Union" published in the "Heimatbuch Weiler im Allgäu" , Verlag Holzer (Weiler im Allgäu, 1994), page 288

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} see web link homepage Weitnau