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THE INTELLECTUAL RESOURCES OF MODERN GOVERNANCE of the sciences of state in SArospatak, and Valerian Raméczy (1807-1864), professor at the law academy of Gyér.”° In this literature, the comprehensive description of the benevolent state and its spheres of activity included Land und Leute, that is, the material and intellectual wealth of the country, but also the workings of the state administration and the laws governing the country. These names are representatives of numerous authors of Staatenkunde (text-)books, whose publication started in the late 1790s and continued until as late as the 1850s.*° This state-centric approach that proceeded via the method of describing was in a sharp contrast with the society-centered perspective of Sinclair, and also with the quantitative Napoleonic statistics. The conceptual identification of state and society corresponded well with the absolutist vision of an immobile political and social order, and continued to be a shared feature of the German, Austrian and Hungarian Staatenkunde, from Schlözer through Niemann and their Hungarian adepts. It lasted until the establishment ofthe Liberal era, signalled by the institutions of nationally organized statistical bureaux.”’ The “unit of analysis” that is, the smallest item described by Staatenkunde, was called Staatsmerkwürdigkeit (meaning “state peculiarity”). The term was introduced by Hermann Conring (1606-1681) and his works written in Latin were translated into German by Achenwall. The notion of Staatsmerkwiirdigkeit designated data that were relevant for the general welfare, as well as the cause of this relevance.”® Achenwall himself found this notion very broad and prompted his readers to concentrate on the most important factors “ohne welche die ware Einrichtung, Stärke oder Schwäche eines Staats nicht begriffen werden kann.””? The wealth of such items and occurrances (“Begebenheiten”) had to be delimited and spread out conveniently before the reader. Their change in time was supposed to show the main changes that took place in the life of an empire and indeed, the historical dimension of Staatenkunde played an important role since Achenwall. Ihe most important state peculiarities included, again, the population, and the items of economic production — the so-called material cause of the state (more about the structure of Staatenkunde below): 25 RAMÓCZY, Valerián, Álladalomtan, vol. 1, Pozsony, Bucsanszky, 1847, 1-4.; SZEREMLEY, Gabor, Politica, Sarospatak, Nadaskay, 1844, 3-7. 26 KONEK, Sandor, A statistika elmelete, Györ, 1847.; Id., Elméleti fejtegetések a statistika terén, 2 vols, Pest, Heckenast, 1855. 27 KONEK, A statistika, 18-20. ACHENWALL, Gottfried, Staatsverfassung der heutigen vornehmsten Reiche in Grundrisse, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck, 1762, 3rd ed., 4. 2 Ibid. 5. + 191 +
