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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 counting, 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 different historical moments comparing the corresponding state particularities. According to Gatterer, Staatenkunde conveyed eine Kenntnis des Ursprungs der Hauptveränderungen eines Reiches voraus. Die Geschichte der Staatsveränderungen (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 Göttingen Enlightenment, but also in all the historiographical traditions affected by it, including the Hungarian.” Austrian and Hungarian Staatenkunde adopted the methods of the Göttinger 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 thematically along three main causae. Ihe main chapters of the book are entitled “Staatsgrundmächte” (material cause of strength, including chapters on geography, 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 concerned 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 +
