Page 186 [186]
BORBÁLA ZSUZSANNA TÖRÖK
enlightened reforms of Maria Theresa (1740-1780) and Joseph II (1780-1790),
after the Habsburg Austrian model, envisaged the teaching of the sciences
of state (Staatswissenschaften). This was particularly important in the train¬
ing of future bureaucrats of the consolidating central administration.* Such
men required training in fields that had not formed part of the curriculum
before: natural jurisprudence, cameralist economy (finance, commerce, popu¬
lation policy), Polizeywissenschaft, as well as Staatenkunde or Statistik.* In 1777,
Staatenkunde was introduced into higher legal education, and the curriculum
required textbooks having Hungary as their object, a compulsory project for
future professors of the discipline.° The urgency of these issues was highlighted
again at the Diet in 1790-1791 after the death of Joseph and in 1792, which
stipulated the teaching of proper knowledge on the legal, historical and “sta¬
tistical” matters of Hungary in the legal faculty of the University of Pest and
at the legal academies.’
What was descriptive statistics (Statistik/Staatenkunde, Hun. statisztika) in
Hungary during the Old Régime (1770-1848) — after the institutionalization
ofthe discipline in teaching and before the establishment of the first Statistical
Office? What was its purpose, what was its use? My focus is on the teaching
material of an established discipline that came to Hungary in multiple ways. For
here were many different methods of transfer in the framework of the Habsburg
educational reforms of the last three decades of the eighteenth century. My
study thus proposes to consider Staatenkunde through its contribution, simi¬
lar to writings on cameralist economy, to the emergence of the modern state,
and to the discourse of its governance. My overview will situate the discipline
in its German and Austrian theoretical context, and explain the methods and
Attila Tudományegyetem, 1971.; A magyar statisztikai feldőoktatás külföldi forrásai és kapcso¬
latai, in A magyar statisztikai felsőoktatás kétszáz éve, Budapest, Központi Statisztikai Hivatal,
1979, 77-91.
SZANTAY, Antal, Regionalpolitik im alten Europa. Die Verwaltungsreformen Josephs LI. in Ungarn,
in der Lombardei und in den Osterreischhischen Niederlanden 1785-1790, Budapest, Akadémiai,
2005, 61-2.
5 Poor, Janos. Adok, katondk, orszaggyiilések, 1796-1811/12, Budapest, Universitas, 2003.; EvANs,
R. J. W., Austria, Hungary, and the Habsburgs. Central Europe c. 1683-1867, Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 2006.
ECKHART, Ferenc, A jog- és államtudományi kar története, 1667-1935. A Királyi Magyar Pázmány
Péter Tudományegyetem története, vol. 2, Budapest, Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, 1936,
97-101.
7 H.BatAzs, Eva, Hungary and the Habsburgs 1765-1800, Budapest, Central European University
Press, 1997, 193-5. See Art 67 of 1790 providing the setting up of select committees to make pro¬
posals for the improvement of specific fields, including education. See also, Vist LAKATOS, Maria,
A Magyar statisztika oktatás történetének kezdetei, Statisztikai Szemle 83 (2005), 568-581, esep¬
cially 569-571.
+ 184 +