ABSTRACT
This chapter reinterprets eighteenth-century German cameralists’ contribution to European political thought by arguing that cameral scientists were advocates of improvement (Verbesserung) and political change. Cameral sciences were a discipline that was quintessentially oriented to improvement. Many cameralist projects of improvement had a precise practical economic focus. They wrote books on how to improve manufactures, mines, agriculture, and forests. Another branch of their literary production concentrated on the broad questions of state activities. These books were written under the umbrella concept of police sciences, which discussed the possibility of organizing citizens’ social life so that it would best serve the aim of common welfare. However, this chapter concentrates on the third and often neglected part of cameralist literature, namely, cameralists’ works on political and constitutional order. The chapter argues that late eighteenth-century cameralists were in favour of projects that aimed at improving the constitutional order of states. Therefore, this chapter argues that a Lehrfach, cameral sciences, which is often considered be directed towards mere administration was in fact thoroughly political, future-oriented, dynamic, and it recognized contingency.
