Cameralism in Practice and Prussian Industrialization Policies

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that Prussian industrialization policies implemented by Peter Beuth and Christian Rother from 1820 to 1848 worked as a kind of cameralism in practice. This argument is supported by two main points: first, Beuth, the primary Prussian industrialization promoter, was a cameralist who, having been trained in cameral sciences at university, tried to apply what he was taught to his industrial policy; second, Beuth's and Rother's industrialization policies accorded with the cameralist way of thinking in creating and promoting new manufacturing industries. Their ideologies were especially similar to that of J. H. G. Justi, the epitome of eighteenth-century cameralism. This article tries to challenge the “disordered police state” interpretation of cameralism and argues that, in contrast to such critical assessments, the economic strategy of cameralism could be interpreted as “the ride of Pegasus.”