Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi, 1717-1771.

One of the giants of German Neo-Cameralism  the details of the peripatic Justi's life are obscure.  After early schooling at Quedlinburg, Justi enlisted in the army and served in the War of Austrian Succession.  There he became the private secretary of a certain Lt. Col von Gersdorff, who instilled in the young Justi a passion for further learning.  Justi enrolled at the University of Wittenberg in Saxony in 1742, followed up by studies at Jena and Leipzig, obtaining his degree with a thesis on military desertion (1744).  

After the death of his mentor, Justi remained in Dresden and got married.  In 1745, Justi published a feeble Swift-like satire, Der Dichterinsel and began publishing a monthly magazine, Ergetzungen.  Justi moved to Sangerhausen and entered into the service of the Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach in 1747.  There, he published a monograph calling for a review of Leibniz's theory of monads.  Justi's essay was crowned in a competition by the Berlin Academy of Sciences.  But Justi's siding with Newton in this debate outraged many German academics.

In 1750, leaving both philosophy and Germany behind, Justi moved to Vienna and took up an appointment at the Collegium Theresianum, an academy recently set up to train young aristocrats bound for the civil service.  Lecturing in economics was expected, and Justi duly delved into Cameralist literature.  In 1752, he composed a prospectus to the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa outlining a course of Cameralistic study. Justi's outline would be used as the basis of a course of study by later Austrian professors, like Sonnenfels.

But just as soon as he arrived, he left.  In 1753, for unknown reasons (possibly friction with ecclesiastical authorities), Justi left Austria and returned to Saxony.  In Mansfeld, he founded a new journal and then proceeded to Leipzig in 1755, long enough to publish his first three tracts in economics -- the Erkenntinis, the Staatswirtshaft (his major work), and an anonymous pamphlet on monetary reform (Entdeckte, etc.). 

Before the end of 1755, Justi left Leipzig for Göttingen, where he had the opportunity to lecture on Cameralism at the local university, while taking an administrative post. He wrote his Policeywissenschaft during this time. But just as Justi's life seemed about to settle, things quickly unravelled.  The Seven Years' War broke out in 1756 and Justi leaped into the fray as a propagandist, aiming peculiar ruminations about Jesuit plots, claiming they had hoarded a treasure earmarked for the conversion of Protestant Germans. That same year, Justi's marriage broke down, ending in a spectacular public divorce (Justi duly published a book on marriage law). Justi was forced to sell his library to pay for the alimony.  His subsequent books on mining and manufacturing (1757) were written basically without it.

Hoping to put it all behind him, Justi left Göttingen in 1757 to take up a post with the King of Denmark.  Justi's sojourn in Denmark lasted less than a year, and he was soon found in Altona in 1759, where he published a series of books on the political issues of the day. His criticism of the conduct of the Austrian and Russian armies landed him in trouble.  To prevent further controversy, at least two of his books had to be published abroad, in the United States.  

After Altona, Justi set off for Hamburg and thereafter to Berlin in 1760.  Little is known as bout his activities during this time. His finances precarious, he is said to have been hounded by legions of creditors.  Despite all this, Justi managed to publish several monthly magazines and a head-swirling number of monographs and books, increasingly concentrated on politics and economics, if carelessly-written and bordering on plagiarism..  But he also resumed his studies in other subjects -- on chemistry, history and the natural sciences (usually with an eye on prize competitions).

In 1765, Justi entered in the service of the Prussian monarch Frederick II the Great as Berghauptmann in Landsberg, a prominent post. His financial troubles seemed to be behind him.  But things did not go well.  In 1768, after an investigation into financial improprieties instigated by creditors and rivals, Justi was arrested and confined in Kustrin fortress.  He would remain there until his death in 1771..   

The Staatwirthschaft (1755) is easily Justi's first major work in economics, a two-volume digest and synthesis of Cameralist literature, drawing upon the lecture notes of Gasser and Dithmar. It is directed mostly to princes and practitioners, rather than students.  After lamenting the state of Cameralist education in Germany, he proceeds to the subject matter.  Justi identifies three sources of increasing the wealth of a nation -- encouraging population growth, a favorable balance of trade in foreign commerce and a step-up in mining activity (Justi had some expertise in mining, having published two books on the subject, 1756 & 1757).  In all of these objectives, Just stresses the responsibility and role of the State.

But why?  Justi outlines his political philosophy in two treatises (the Grundriss 1759 and the Natur 1760).  Essentially,  Justi stresses the conjoined happiness of the ruler and the people. "No one can rule over reasonable and free beings except with the intention of promoting their welfare and making them happy" (p.33).  In Justi's perspective, then, Cameralism is not so much the economics of state power, but the economics of public happiness, of which the State is an important and indispensable actor, not only as the provider of security, but also the guarantor of freedom and the promoter of wealth.. In fact, he pursues the conjectural history that people had "come together" in a society precisely for that purpose, a collective will to promote their general happiness.  Although he notes that absolutism, rather than republicanism, is the culmination of that effort.  By handing the single ruler that responsibility for the collective happiness, the people became "free" of that "burden" and were thus able to concentrate on the calmer pursuit of individual happiness.  The ruler, thus trusted, must meet its obligations to public welfare. However, he also stresses the need to keep checks and balances to maintain the king's "moral virtue", which he envisages could be maintained via a series of administrative colleges.  A good and efficient civic structure can prevent any abuses of arbitrary power.

The design of this civic structure is the aim behind his Policeywissenschaft (1756), followed up in his Grundfeste (1760-1).  This is meant to complement his other works, the details of proper administrative structure to assist the practical internal objectives of cultivation of land, improving the laboring classes and maintaining discipline and order in the community.  Its guiding purpose is that "the internal institutions of the community must be so arranged that thereby the general means of the state will be preserved and increased and the common happiness constantly promoted".  In his 1766 Finanzwesens treatise, Justi sets out systematic guidelines for the design of taxation schemes that maximize both state power and general happiness.  Justi's other economic ruminations, particularly his enthusiasm for population growth, are found in his 1760 and 1761-64 collections. 

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