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BORBÁLA ZSUZSANNA TÖRÖK
"Grundstatistik" of a state, Schlözer advocated the joint work of experts from
several disciplines: a mathematician and a physicist for measuring and count¬
ing, in order to help the geographer map the “towns and villages and main
streets (...) and arable land, the forests etc. The naturalist charted the products
of the country while the economist described the agriculture, the way people
lived and nurtured themselves, their trade and crafts.”** Then followed the
description of the Staatsverfassung, including state law and the functioning of
the judiciary, the legal and administrative system, including also the military.
Finally, the Staatenkunde of Gatterer, Achenwall and Schlözer attempted to
account for historical changes in the structure and functioning of the state.
They planned to gauge the former by creating state descriptions of states at dif¬
ferent historical moments comparing the corresponding state particularities.
According to Gatterer, Staatenkunde conveyed eine Kenntnis des Ursprungs
der Hauptveränderungen eines Reiches voraus. Die Geschichte der Staats¬
veränderungen (Revolutionen) eines Reiches ist also das erste, welches in der
historischen Staatslehre eines jeden Volks abgehandelt werden muß.”°? Hence
the importance of Staatenkunde in establishing the historiography of the Göt¬
tingen Enlightenment, but also in all the historiographical traditions affected
by it, including the Hungarian.”
Austrian and Hungarian Staatenkunde adopted the methods of the Göt¬
tinger scholars, albeit with, as a rule, slight modifications. One example was
the well-known “Individualstatistik” of Hungary, by Martin Schwartner. The
description is arranged in an encyclopaedic format and structured themati¬
cally along three main causae. Ihe main chapters of the book are entitled
“Staatsgrundmächte” (material cause of strength, including chapters on geog¬
raphy, climate, people, natural resources, products, economy and commerce),
“Staatsverfassung oder Staaterecht” (with sections on the fundamental laws of
the country) and “Staatsverwaltung” (public administration and the executive
branch of the state), as shown in Table 1., a structure maintained in all the
editions. One ofthe most dynamically developing fields in Staatenkunde con¬
cerned the formal cause, with an increasingly accurate account of the physical
geography of states, population structure, products, branches of economy and
commerce."
A similar structure is found in the state descriptions in the Hungarian
adaptations. Dániel Ercsei (1781-1836), professor at the Reformed College of
38 SCHLOZER, Theorie der Statistik, 62.
39 GIERL, Geschichte, 179.
10 Ibid., Geschichte, 177-180.
u HORVÁTH, A magyar leíró statisztikai irány, 1966, passim.
s 194 +