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TERRA ECONOMICUS

Cameralism and the tradition of natural law


TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 18 (no. 4),

The article presents an attempt to describe the intellectual context in which cameralism developed in the 18th century. The main thesis is that during this period two independent sources of economic thought were formed: one goes back to scholasticism and developed in the frame of jurisprudence and moral philosophy; the other one takes its origins in the “science of public administration”, which is distinguished by practical goals it set and the absence of a theoretical system. During our investigation, we made a focus on the tradition of natural law and its evolution (the scholastic, rationalist (J. Locke and others) and sociological (D. Hume and others) schools are compared). The comparison of thoughts is carried out by three points, which were essential for the development of economic thought of this period: 1) methodological (apriorism/anti-apriorism); 2) anthropological (acceptance/improvement of the natural properties of man); 3) political (liberalism/ regulationism in economics). The study draws parallels with the development of economic thought in Russia in the 18th century.
Citation: Chaplygina, I. G. (2020). Cameralism and the tradition of natural law. Terra Economicus, 18(4), 97–110. DOI: 10.18522/2073-6606-2020-18-4-97-110 (In Russian)
Acknowledgment: The study was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) within the framework of the research project № 19-010-01080 “Cameralism in Russia in XVIII–XIX centuries: Economic practice and academic discipline”.


Keywords: cameralism; natural law; economic liberalism; apriorism; Russian economic thought of XVIII century; economics as a science and as a discipline

JEL codes: B11, B19, B30, B31

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