‎JUSTI, J.H.G. VON.‎
‎Staatswirthschaft oder systematische Abhandlung aller Oekonomischen und Cameralwissenschaften, die zur Regierung eines Landes erfordert werden. In zween Theilen ausgefertiget. Erster Theil, Welcher die Lehre von Erhaltung und Vermehrung des Vermögens des Staats ... in sich begreift. [- Zweyter Theil, Welcher die Lehre von dem vernünftigen Gebrauche des Vermögens des Staats ... in sich begreift.] Nebst einem vollständigen Register über beide Theile. Zweyte stark vermehrte Auflage.‎

‎Leipzig, Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, 1758. With 5 folding printed tables (3 in volume one; 2 in volume two). Two volumes. xlviii, 606; [ii], 744, [51] index, [1] errata pp. 8vo. Recent half calf to style, spine gilt with matching gilt-lettered labels; contemporary mss notes and calculations to front free endpaper of volume one; still a good copy. Kress 5716; Einaudi 3104; Higgs 1634; Humpert 790; not in Goldsmiths'; not in Mattioli. Second, much enlarged and revised edition of Justi's Staatswirthschaft (first pulished in 1755). Justi (1705-1771), the leading representative of eighteenth century cameralism was appointed in 1750 the first professor of cameral sciences established at the 'Theresianum' in Vienna, an academy for the education of the nobility for public administration."Cameralism is the study of state administration under absolutism, the period when governments aspired to almost universal regulation and sought to instrumentalize economy and society for their own ends. Justi distinguished himself from fellow cameralists by his lucid prose, his relentless systematizing (which led him to ground cameralism in modern political philosophy) and, above all, by his growing insistence that economy and society were quasi-independent entities that governement should serve, not vise versa. Justi, however, elevated civil society and its requirements for material prosperity and free ethical development without ever abandoning the typical cameralist focus on successful administration and enhancement of state power. It has therefore been easy to overlook Justi's significance in the transition from cameralism to modern liberalism" (Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, ii, p. 325).Justi was a man of remarkable gifts and indefatigable industry. His importance in the history of political economy arises from the fact that he was the first German systematic writer on the science. In his earlier publications he stands on the basis of the mercantilist doctrine, but in his later works he was influenced by the encyclopedists and tended towards views similar to those of the physiocratic school (Palgrave, ii, p. 499). "His major work is the Staatswirtschaft, literally 'state economy', which details the manner in which a ruler should govern his lands to assure the 'happiness of the state' and a flourishing population. Cameralism had begun as a systematization of the principles followed by the administrators of the ruler's domains. In Justi these principles are identified with the management of the absolutist state, in which economic welfare is conceived as the path to political power. Welfare and wealth are produced by good government and the implementation of 'good police' - Polizei in the 18th-century sense of regulations covering all aspects of social action and public order" (New Palgrave, ii, p. 1039). "The subject of Justi's inquiry is what the German historians call the Welfare State (Wohlfahrtstaat) in its historic individuality and in all its aspects. That is to say, he dealt with economic problems from the standpoint of a government that accepts responsability for the moral and economic conditions of life - just as modern governments do - in particular for everyone's employment and livelihood, for the improvement of the methods and organization of production, for a sufficient supply of raw materials and foodstuffs, and so on through a long list of topics that include beautification of cities, fire insurance, education, sanitation, and what not" (Schumpeter, p. 171). - Some faint dampstaining affecting first two signatures of volume two. ‎

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