Seite 194 [194]
BORBÁLA ZSUZSANNA TÖRÖK
"Die Regierung die Bevölkerung auf das höchste zu treiben zu bemüht seyn soll. (...)
Das Kenntniß der Bevölkerung ist also bey allen Theilen der öffentlichen Verwal¬
tung unentbehrlich: die Mittel, dieselbe im Ganzen und ihren Theilen zu übersehen,
gehören also keinem Zweige der Staatswissenschaft insbesondere an, sie gehören
(...) zu allen.”*°
II
Originally a formal academic discipline, Staatenkunde increasingly drew on
empirical findings and incorporated administrative data. In the course of the
nineteenth century the fusion of the two strands of knowledge production led
to the shaping of statistical methods as known today. Authors in the academic
system, isolated from the spheres of administrative decision making, had lim¬
ited access to empirical data. Their works often discussed the administrative
resources of the state in an abstract, theoretical manner, with little reference to
actual politics. The latter required personal experience in the county or central
administration, or at least contact with influential officials, as was the case
with two very influential Protestant reform intellectuals of the post-Josephist
decades, Gergely Berzeviczy and his attentive reader and compiler, Martin
Schwartner. These scholars did not only describe, but, proceeding in the man¬
ner of August Ludwig Schlozer, criticized the status quo.”
Berzeviczy, and later Schwartner, calculated average values of land extension,
population density, and other data concerning the production of agricultural
produces. They compared their data with similar data from other countries,
in order to assess the material-economic and legal-administrative status of
Hungary in a European framework.” Both of them arrived at the conclusion
30 SONNENFELS, Joseph von, Grundsdtze der Polizey, Handlung, und Finanz, Vol. 1, Wien, Kurzbeck,
1787, 5th ed., reprint 2003, 26. Other examples that underline the importance of knowing the
population and of the riches of the territory include DEMIAN, Johann Andreas, Versuch über die
Staatskräfte der österreichischen Monarchie in Beziehung auf Europa, Wien, Germanien, 1797.;
Id., Versuch über die Staatskräfte der österreichischen Monarchie in Beziehung auf Europa, Wien,
1805, 2nd ed. Demian finds it important to establish the “number of working population” and
the number of “tax-free, for the state costly” part of the population. See Idem, 66. Örı, Péter —
PAKOT, Levente, Census and census-like material pre-served in the archives of Hungary, Slovakia
and Transylvania (Romania), 18-19th centuries. MPIDR working paper WP 2011-020 December
2011.
BERZEVICZY, Ungarns Industrie und Kommerz,
See in particular KLUETING, Harm, Die Lehre von der Macht der Staaten. Das außenpolitische
Machtproblem in der “politischen Wissenschaft” und in der praktischen Politik im 18. Jahrhundert,
Berlin, Duncker und Humblot, 1986.
* 192 +