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NOTE 2. Economics as an Academic Discipline

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CHAPTER II. ECONOMICS AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE

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Economic disciplines at Austrian universities developed from the eighteenth-century science

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of Cameralistics, which was intended to endow future civil servants with the necessary economic

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and administrative skills to manage the domains and the states of the authorities. The first

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Most relevant chair was instituted at the Theresianische Akademie in 1751, which at

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the time was an educational centre for young Viennese aristocrats.

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Later, the universities of Vienna and Prague followed suit.

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This development was driven mainly by Josef von Sonnenfels, 1732-1817, who in 1763 established

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Polizei und Kameralwissenschaften, Science of Regulation and Kameralistics at the Faculty

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of Philosophy in Vienna. In 1784 he relocated the chair to the Faculty of Law. From then

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on and until 1919, economics remained part of the law curriculum under a variety of labels.

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With his Grundsätze der Polizei, Handlungs- und Finanzwissenschaft, 1765, 1772, three

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volumes, Principles of Regulation, Administration and Public Finance, Sonnen first presented

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a textbook which was a mixture of well-meaning concern and confining paternalism typical

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of the enlightened Josephian authoritarian state, named after Emperor Joseph II, 1741-1790.

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Until the middle of the 19th century it served to educate prospective civil servants and was

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only replaced by Die Grundlehren der Volkswirtschaft, 1846, The Basic Rules of Economy, written

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by Josef von Kudler, 1786, 1853, one of von Sonnenfels's successes.

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Thus were Austrian students led until far into the 19th century into a way of thinking

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With Kudler's death, this traditional Austrian strain would soon be lost. What followed was

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an increasing orientation toward German and Prussian universities, where Cameralistic

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studies were assigned chiefly to the philosophy faculties. Only in Strasbourg, Würzburg and

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and Freiburg were integrated into the respective law faculties. Independent faculties of political

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science existed in Munich and Tübingen. In the middle of the 19th century, in a phase

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of identity-seeking reorientation, the term Kameralwissenschaft was replaced by a confusing

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multitude of denotations, for example Finanzwissenschaft, public finance, politische Ökonomie, political

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Social Economy, Nationale Ökonomie, National Economics, Volkswirtschaftslehre, Social Economics,

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or Staatswissenschaften, Political Sciences. For graduates, the terms Kameralist or Nationale

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Ökonom were preferred. The term Volkswirt, Social Economist, tended to be rejected because

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of its linguistic closeness to Bierwirt or Schenkwirt. Both terms Bierwirt and Schenkwirt

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can be translated as publican or innkeeper.

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With the role of the German economist changing rapidly in the face of a growing nation-state

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and the developing industrial society, the inadequacy of his customary two-year education

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soon became apparent.

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This had a detrimental effect on career prospects in civil service and began to unsettle all

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and all of its members. Concerns that educated lawyers might possibly replace camera lists

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were voiced. By contrast, these sorts of problems were unknown to economists in Austria. Their

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foundational studies in law ensured them of sufficient career opportunities. In fact,

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demand was increasing greatly on the part of the Austrian state administration.

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Der Verein für Sozialpolitik, founded with the substantial involvement by the German

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and economist Gustav Schmoller, 1838-1917, succeeded in calling a halt to this uncertainty.

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From the beginning, tangible corporate interests played a major role, and for a short while

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setting up the Society as an official trade association was considered. Most held the

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view that economics should be principally concerned with the possibilities of state

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and influence on economic processes. On the basis of such a program, members expected jobs, resources, reputation and influence.

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An understanding of economics as a science for analyzing and explaining the nature of the economy was neglected when compared to this view.

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With this self-assured reorientation, those who had recommended a combined legal and economic education in Germany gradually disappeared as well.

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The establishment of economics within varying faculties also resulted in typical Austrian and German graduates having remarkably different social profiles.

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Evidence shows that law students at the University of Vienna, who comprised about 40% of the Empire's total law students,

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originated largely from the middle and upper classes, high-level civil servants, officers, lawyers, factory owners, businessmen.

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The same can be said of law students as a whole in Germany. The faculty of philosophy,

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however, where German camera lists studied, recruited members predominantly from the lower

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class. Perhaps even more than social background, institutions and curricula determined a significantly

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different scholarly socialisation and a dissimilar intellectual character. In order to graduate

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as an economist in Austria, one had to complete a course in law, of which the history of law

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Law was a substantial part. While working on abstract law terms, terminology analyses

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and methods of interpretation and their practical applications, students were being coached

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above all in analytical thinking, linguistic precision and logic. The major subjects of

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jurisprudence were oriented toward hermeneutics. In contrast, Cameralistics at German universities

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was based on a predominantly descriptive empirical approach, evident from the encyclopedic breadth

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of the course alone. Areas of study ranged from farming, agriculture, mining, trade and

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industry to finance, political science and government accounting, and the programme was

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closely associated both institutionally and methodologically with the natural sciences.

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As far as their intellectual self-conception, career goals, career options, scientific

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When culture and methodological repertoire were concerned, economists trained in Austria

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and Germany basically came from two different worlds.

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Looking at university statistics, it is easy to understand German economists' fear of

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falling behind in their careers. The total number of students at the 20 German and Prussian

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in Universities had increased steeply from 13,247 from 1861 to 1862 to 24,207 from 1882

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to 1883, including the newly founded University of Strasbourg. It is true that the Cameralists

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were only counted along with the Agriculturalists and Pharmacists for statistics purposes, but

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But even so, they totaled only 1,455 students in all, to which about 100 students of the

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Munich and Tübingen faculties of political science should be added.

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In any case, their proportion in the student body decreased from 10% in 1841 to less than

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6% in 1881.

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Despite a general boom in education, the number of authors in the discipline of Cameralistics,

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and half of whom held professorships, remained unchanged at about 100 throughout the 19th

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century.

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In comparison, the total number of students at the seven German language universities

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of the Austrian monarchy – Vienna, Prague, Innsbruck, Lemberg, Krakow and Chernowicz

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– had increased from 6,034 from 1863 to 1864 to 13,069 from 1883 to 1884, even though

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Well the University of Krakow was polonised in 1870 and the University of Czernowitz had

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only been founded in 1875. The law faculties had 2,527 from 1863 to 1864 and 5,407 from

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1883 to 1884 students respectively, thus constantly more than 40% of all students. In terms of

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Because of student numbers, the Faculty of Law in Vienna was the largest law teaching

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institution in the world. Because of growing student numbers, the larger law faculties

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were given a second chair of economics in the 1860s. The two Viennese professorships

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were deemed to be particularly lucrative, especially as tuition and exam fees flowed

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in plentifully. With a considerable 3,000 to 4,000 students attending, I had the most

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Attractive Outlook for My Accounts, recollected Albert Eberhard Friedrich Scheffler, 1831-1903,

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Carl Menger's predecessor. Nevertheless, some chairs remained vacant for years because

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of a great shortage of professors. Of the 71 professorships at all law faculties in

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the Austrian monarchy, only 50 were occupied in 1874. In Vienna alone, six of the 17 chairs

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were vacant. Because Austrian professors had to be qualified in law as well, the circle

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of possible candidates from Germany was limited from the start. Furthermore, many ideal candidates

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rejected the summons to Vienna because the faculty was considered to be too school-like,

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research was neglected, and the climate among the teaching staff was considered less than

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harmonious. The shortage of local junior lecturers was the result of the boom of the Gründerjahre,

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meaning the economic expansion in Austria and Germany in the second half of the 19th

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century.

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This boom absorbed a not insignificant number of the most talented young lawyers who received

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rewarding often illustrious positions as directors, secretaries and the like.

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Only a significant increase in public officials' salaries in the 1870s resulted in a greater

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influx of lawyers entering public service.

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When Carl Menger began his law studies in Vienna, Lorenz von Stein, 1815-1890 was teaching

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political economy. The second professorship was occupied by Leopold Hasner von Arta, 1818-1891,

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who after serving for only two years was promoted to Minister for Education and later to Prime

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Minister and did not return to the University. His successor, Albert E. F. Schäffler from

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of Württemberg, took over the office of Minister for Trade in 1871 and shortly thereafter went

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to Stuttgart. At about the same time, the Viennese publishing house Braumüller published

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a book by the up-to-that-time unknown 30-year-old Carl Menger. It was almost 300 pages long

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and Would Yet Make History, Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre, 1871, Principles of Economics.