Cameralism

Cameralism is generally known as the German variant of mercantilism , the dominant economic policy in the age of absolutism (16th-18th centuries). However, the focus was less on promoting trade than on promoting agriculture and population growth .

Content

The name "Kameralismus" is derived from the high officials in the "Chamber College" of a (German) prince, the so-called "Kameralisten".

German cameralism already differs in its initial situation from the mercantilism of other European countries: the primary goal was to rebuild the country that was destroyed by the Thirty Years War . To do this, the population should first be increased, e.g. B. by setting up settlements and recruiting foreign specialists.

Then the infrastructure and the trade were expanded by founding new factories , some of them directly by the state. The direct intervention of the state and the subordinate importance of free enterprise is an essential characteristic of cameralism. This was due to the theoretical conception of camera science (political economy). According to this, the essential purpose of a state was to guarantee the welfare of all citizens through a capable central administration. In order to be able to do this, it required well-trained civil servants who had studied camera science or law and who were able to organize the state, the economy, the legal system and the everyday life of the citizens appropriately with their trained reason, clear methods and knowledge of the prevailing rules were able to.

The term cameralistics derived from cameralism is a designation of the public administration and its affiliated companies. The term refers specifically to accounting, but also to finance, economics, administration, law and police science.

Well-known camera operators

In Imperial Austrian service

In Saxon service

In Bavarian service

Simon Rottmanner

Others

literature

Bauer, Volker, farm economy. The discourse on the royal court in ceremonial studies, house fathers literature and cameralism, Vienna 1997
Braeuer, Walter, Kameralism and Mercantilism. A critical comparison, in: Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte (3/1990), pp. 107–111
Brückner, Jutta, Political Science, Cameralism and Natural Law. A contribution to the history of political science in Germany in the late 17th and early 18th centuries (= Munich Studies on Politics 27), Munich 1977
Dittrich, Erhard, The German and Austrian Cameralists (= income from research 23), Darmstadt 1974
Engelhardt, Ulrich, On the concept of happiness in the cameralistic theory of the state of the 18th century (JHG v. Justi), in: Journal for Historical Research 8 (1981), pp. 37–79
Ekelund, Robert and Tollison, Robert, Mercantilism as a rent-seeking society (= Texas A&M University Economics Series 5), College Station 1981
Gömmel, Rainer, The Development of the Economy in the Age of Mercantilism 1620–1800 (= Encyclopedia of German History 46), Munich 1998
Friedrich-Wilhelm Henning : The heyday of cameralism, in: Henning, Friedrich-Wilhelm (ed.), Handbook of Economic and Social History of Germany, Vol. 1, Paderborn 1991, pp. 733–950
Kaufhold, Karl Heinrich, "Economics" and economic policy in Prussia around 1650 to around 1800, in: Kaufhold, Karl Heinrich (ed.), Economics, Science and Education in Prussia. On the economic and social history of Prussia from the 18th to the 20th century (= VSWG supplement 148), Stuttgart 1998, pp. 51–72
Kaufhold, Karl Heinrich, Prussian State Economy - Concept and Reality - 1640–1806. In memory of Wilhelm Treue, in: Yearbook for Economic History (2/1994), pp. 33–70
Magnusson, Lars, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic Language, London 1994
Ingrid Mittenzwei : Prussia after the Seven Years War. Disputes between the bourgeoisie and the state over economic policy (= Academy of Sciences of the GDR, writings of the Central Institute for History 62), Berlin 1979
Nolte, Burkhard, mercantilism and reasons of state in Prussia. Intent, practice and effect of Frederick II's customs policy in Silesia and in the Westphalian provinces (1740–1786) (= materials and studies on East Central Europe research 10), Marburg 2004
Radtke, Wolfgang, Prussian Mercantilism / Cameralism. Shown using the Kurmark Brandenburg as an example. Outline of a research project, in: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History 46 (1995), pp. 94–110
Radtke, Wolfgang, Trade and Commerce in the Kurmark Brandenburg 1740 to 1806. On the interdependence of cameralistic state economy and private sector (= publications of the Brandenburg State Main Archive 46), Berlin 2003
Sandl, Marcus, Economics of Space. The cameral science draft of the political sciences in the 18th century (= norm and structure 11), Cologne 1999
Simon, Thomas, "Good Policey". Regulations and objectives of political action in the early modern period (= publications of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History 170), Frankfurt a. M. 2004
Springer, Friedrich P., On cameralism and mining, Der Anschnitt, Issue 5–6 / 2010 pp. 230–241
Gerhard Stapelfeldt : Mercantilism. The genesis of world society from the 16th to the 18th century, Freiburg 2001
Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara , The state as a machine. On the political imagery of the absolute princely state (= historical research 30), Berlin 1986
Tieck, Klaus-Peter, reasons of state and self-interest. Three studies on the history of the 18th century (= writings of the Italian-German Historical Institute in Trient 13), Berlin 1998
Tribe, Keith, Strategies of economic order: German economic discourse, 1750–1950 (= Ideas in Context 33), Cambridge 1995
Tribe, Keith, Governing Economy. The reformation of German economic discourse 1750-1840, Cambridge 1988
Wallerstein, Immanuel, The Modern World-System II. Mercantilism and the consolidation of the european world-economy. 1600–1750, New York / London / Toronto / Sydney / San Francisco 1980
Andre Wakefield, The Disordered Police State: German Cameralism as Science and Practice (Chicago, Chicago UP, 2009).
Zielenzinger, Kurt, Kameralismus, in: Concise Dictionary of Political Science, Vol. 5, Jena 1922, pp. 573-576.