Cameralism

Discussion

"In the Scandinavian and German-speaking regions of Europe, cameralism, the science of state management or applied political economy, flourished throughout the early modern period as an integral part of higher education. Some of the more prominent contributors are Johann Joachim Becher (1635–82), Ernst Ludwig Carl (1682–1743), Carl Linnaeus (1707–78), Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (1717–71), and Joseph von Sonnenfels (1732–1817). Cesare Beccaria (1735–94) was appointed the first chair of Cameral Science at the University of Milan, in 1768. Cameralism preached a strong version of autarky or economic self-sufficiency, including sumptuary laws, and promoted the study of natural history as the means to harness nature's bounty through mining and forestry.

Cameralism is usually sharply distinguished from the mainstream of eighteenth-century political economy, which was increasingly cosmopolitan and forward-looking; global trade and economic expansion implied greater prosperity in the future and, more significantly, a diminution of war and conflict."

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/cameralism)