Baroque and Cameralism: Towards an Intellectual History of Economic Thinking
https://doi.org/10.58186/2782-3660-2023-3-1-100-122
Abstract
The Baroque, as an era and style in architecture, music, and literature, shares analogies with the history of early political economy. The main purpose of this article is to show that the use of the notion of the Baroque in the intellectual history of economic thinking provides a better understanding of both the corpus of works and the motivations of the authors. It is common to refer to the era preceding classical political economy as mercantilism or cameralism, as its German version. A close acquaintance with the most prominent figures of cameralism — such as Johann Joachim Becher and Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi — raises questions. How can we understand such amazing productivity and desire to work simultaneously in such different fields, not limited to agriculture, finance, security, police, ethics, but touching upon law, natural philosophy, and natural sciences, humor, and such questions as making paints or turning sand into gold? Why are they so versatile and multifaceted? Why such immense mobility and desire to impress, charm and at the same time to create verbose intrigue, to intentionally obscure their meaning, to bring about a certain level of confusion? Why this manner of writing and the famous projectionism — those which are courageous and comic at the same time? In some cases, it is the juxtaposition of the two labels that will give a better understanding of the corpus of texts — Baroque and Cameralism. In addition, states had new demands for maintaining a permanent army, for building roads and buildings, for displaying grandeur and glory. The festive splendor of Versailles needed a Baroque man. Many obscure manifestations of economic thought become clearer through the prism of Baroque terms. The corpus of works exhibits vitality, excess, a desire for a new pathos, and optimism.
About the Author
D. Raskov
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS), University of Helsinki (UH)
Finland
Finland
Danila Raskov
References
1. Afanas’ev A. A. Ehkonomicheskaya mysl’ v Ispanii XVI veka — Salamankskaya shkola [Economic Thought in Sixteenth-Century Spain — The Salamanca School]. Ehkonomika i matematicheskie metody [Economics and Mathematical Methods], 2004, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 26–58.
2. Baroque Personae (ed. R. Villari), Chicago; London, University of Chicago Press, 1995.
3. Benjamin W. Proiskhozhdenie nemetskoi barochnoi dramy [Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels], Moscow, Agraf, 2002.
4. Biberg I. The OEconomy of Nature. Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Natural History, Husbandry, and Physick. 2nd ed., London, Dodsley, 1762, pp. 37–130.
5. Blaug M. Ehkonomicheskaya mysl’ v retrospektive [Economic Theory in Retrospect], Moscow, Delo, 1994.
6. Buelow G. J. A History of Baroque Music, Bloomington; Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2004.
7. Bukofzer M. Music in the Baroque Era from Monteverdi to Bach, New York, W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1947.
8. Chechot I. Barokko kak kul’turologicheskoe ponyatie. Opyt issledovaniya K. Gurlita [Baroque as a culturological concept. The Experience of С. Gurlitt’s Research]. Barokko v slavyanskikh kul’turakh [Baroque in Slavic Cultures] (eds A. Lipatov et al.), Moscow, Nauka, 1982, pp. 326–349.
9. Dean M. Governmentality. Power and Rule in Modern Society, London, SAGE, 1999. Foucault M. Bezopasnost’, territoriya, naselenie. Kurs lektsii, prochitannykh v Kollezh de Frans v 1977–1978 uchebnom godu [Sécurité, territoire, population. Cours au Collège de France (1977–78)], Saint Petersburg, Nauka, 2011.
10. Foucault M. Governmentality. The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (eds G. Burchell et al.), Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 87– 104.
11. Germaniya [Germany]. Ezhemesyachnye sochineniya i izvestiya o uchenykh delakh [Monthly Essays and News of Scientific Affairs], 1763, July, pp. 91–92.
12. Heckscher E. Mercantilism, vol. I–II, New York, Macmillan Co., 1935.
13. Hestmark G. OEconomia Naturæ L. The Ecology of Linnaeus Was Stoic, Baroque and Surprisingly Modern. Nature, 2000, vol. 405, no. 6782, p. 19.
14. Hubatsch W. Barock als Epochenbezeichnung. Zu neuerem geschichtswissenschaftlichen Schrifttum über das 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Absolutismus (Hrsg. W. Hubatsch), Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973, S. 268– 287.
15. Justi J. G. G. von. Onomatologia oeconomica practica oder OEconomisches Wörtebuch, Frankfurt; Leipzig, Gaumischen Bandlung, 1760.
16. Justi J. H. G. von. Osnovanie sily i blagosostoyaniya tsarstv, ili Podrobnoe nachertanie vsekh znanii, kasayushchikhsya do gosudarstvennago blagochiniya [Die Grundfeste zu der Macht und Glückseeligkeit der Staaten; oder ausführliche Vorstellung der gesamten Policey-Wissenschaft], Saint Petersburg, Imperatorskaya Akademiya nauk, 1775
17. Justi J. H. G. von. Sushchestvennoe izobrazhenie estestva narodnykh obshchestv i vsyakogo roda zakonov [Die Natur und das Wesen der Staaten], Moscow, Imperatorskii Moskovskii universitet, 1770.
18. Kaplun V. Perestat’ myslit’ “vlast’” cherez “gosudarstvo”: gouvernementalité, Governmentality Studies i chto stalo s analitikoi vlasti Mishelya Fuko v russkikh perevodakh [Stop Thinking “Power” Through the “State”: Gouvernementalité, Governmentality Studies, and What Became of Michel Foucault’s Power Analysis in Russian Translations]. Logos. Filosofsko-literaturnyi zhurnal [Logos. Philosophical and Literary Journal], 2019, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 179–220.
19. Raeff M. The Well-Ordered Police State and the Development of Modernity in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Europe: An Attempt at a Comparative Approach. The American Historical Review, 1975, vol. 80, pp. 1221–1243.
20. Raeff M. The Well-Ordered Police State. Social and Institutional Change Through Law in the Germanies and Russia, 1600–1800, New Haven; London, Yale University Press, 1983.
21. Raskov D. Kameralizm knig: perevody Yusti v Rossii XVIII veka [Cameralism of Books: Justi’s Translations in the Eighteenth-Century Russia]. Terra Economicus, 2019, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 62–79.
22. Schmoller G. The Mercantile System and Its Historical Significance, New York, Macmillan Co., 1897.
23. Schumpeter J. History of Economic Analysis, London, Routledge, 1986.
24. Skinner Q. Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas. History and Theory, 1969, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 3–53.
25. Small A. The Cameralists. The Pioneers of German Social Polity, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1909.
26. Stepanov A. Chem nam interesno barokko? [What Interests Us About the Baroque?]. Logos. Filosofsko-literaturnyi zhurnal [Logos. Philosophical and Literary Journal], 2018, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 191–222.
27. Sсhumpeter J. Istoriya ehkonomicheskogo analiza [History of Economic Analysis], vol. 1, Saint Petersburg, Ehkonomicheskaya shkola, 2004.
28. Vipper B., Livanova T. Renessans. Barokko. Klassitsizm: problema stilei v zapadnoevropeiskom iskusstve XV–XVII vekov [Renaissance. Baroque. Classicism: the Problem of Styles in Western European art of the Fifteenth — Seventeenth Centuries], Moscow, Nauka, 1966.
29. Wakefield A. The Disordered Police State: German Cameralism as Science and Practice, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2009.
30. Wennerlind C. Theatrum OEconomicum: Anders Berch and the Dramatization of the Swedish Improvement Discourse. New Perspectives on the History of Political Economy (eds R. Fredona, S. Reinert), London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 103–130.
31. Wölfflin H. Renessans i barokko. Issledovanie sushchnosti i stanovleniya stilya barokko v Italii [Renaissance und Barock: Eine Untersuchung über Wesen und Entstehung des Barockstils in Italien], Saint Petersburg, Azbuka-klassika, 2004
Review
For citations:
Raskov D. Baroque and Cameralism: Towards an Intellectual History of Economic Thinking. Versus. 2023;3(1):100-122. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.58186/2782-3660-2023-3-1-100-122
Views:
298
Email this article 