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  • Сameralism and economic disciplines in the eighteenth-century Moscow university

CAMERALISM AND ECONOMIC DISCIPLINES IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MOSCOW UNIVERSITY

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 17 (no. 4),

The main purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of European cameralism on the development of Russian economic science and education in the 18th century. Cameralism as a Science of the State or Science of Regulation was a response to the profound political changes provoked by the Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia as well as by the process of secularization. Young national states developed the idea of civil and economic regulation as a main source of its power and sovereignty. This new political strategy demanded a new type of economic knowledge – applied, pragmatic, and practical-oriented. As a result, new cameral sciences demonstrated few distinctive features: the emphasis on collecting data of national economy, the practical focus of research, the methodological and disciplinary eclectics as well as the growth of the publicity of academic activity. Thus, the investigation of the Russian economic thought and education of 18th century is aimed to discover common features with European cameral tendencies. In this period, “economy” designated the practical application of any scientific knowledge in order to rationalize the economic life of the state. As a result, natural sciences played the notable role in the development of economic science. The structure of the courses of Moscow University from 1755 to 1804 did show that economic disciplines are represented at all three faculties, – Philosophy, Law and Medicine. Even after the department of political economy was established in 1804, this disciplinary disunity tended to persist.
Citation: Chaplygina, I. G. (2019). Cameralism and economic disciplines in the eighteenth-century Moscow University. Terra Economicus, 17(4), 80–94. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-4-80-94


Keywords: cameralism; Russian economic thought of XVIII century; Moscow State University; Russian economic education; evolution of economic thought

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Publisher: Southern Federal University
Founder: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606