5 - Cameralist Writing in the Mirror of Practice: The Long Development of Forestry in Germany

Summary

Over the past three decades, historians of cameralism have moved away from treating it as a largely intellectual exercise, a specific school of political and economic thought, to drawing attention to the way it was (or was not) embedded as a discourse in particular practices: university education, alchemical endeavour, experimental agriculture, or just looking for a job. In 2005 Andre Wakefield went back to Albion Small's distinction between ‘book cameralists’ and ‘practical cameralists’, calling for more attention to be given to the interaction of literary production with administrative practice. In truth, even this distinction describes, in most cases, rather than different biographies, different moments in an individual's career trajectory, moving between managerial responsibility in a private or state capacity and periods of accelerated writing, publication or involvement in education. Some managed each with rather more distinction than others, and perhaps the most prolific writers, precisely because they had time to write and build their reputation through writing, were the least representative of either the usual run of cameralist administrators, or of the everyday expectations of those who did the drudge work of running states. In cases where historians have tied the stages of this trajectory into a more coherent analysis, this has generally been done in a biographical mode, explaining the context of particular writings, or indeed examining whether individuals practised what they preached. Studies that broadly contextualise cameralist thought within long-term trends in administration and governance in the germanophone territories remain scarce.

One theme that consistently emerges in cameralist works is forestry. Forestry was a major aspect of state activity in central Europe, employed large numbers of people (as foresters, woodwards, or as part of the provision of princely hunting), and both could supply significant revenues to the fisc, or underpin the activities of strategically important industries such as metalsmelting or saltworks. Some states managed woodlands directly, or leased concessions to supply significant timber export industries. Territorial rulers both exercised extensive direct ownership of woodlands, which could be used to generate income; enjoyed rights both of regal claimed over unutilised space and in regard to hunting over their entire territory; and also asserted rights to govern the provision of basic resources to ensure basic welfare (Notdurft).