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Karl Baron vom und zum Stein, Nassau Memorandum on Administrative Reform in Prussia (June 1807)

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The first main division is broken down into four subdivisions:

1. Demesnes and forests,

2. Dues, direct and indirect dues,

3. Administration, mail, lottery, bank, the Seehandlung, minting, mining, salt,

4. State fiscal system [Staatskassensystem], public accounting, and the main treasury [Hauptkasse].

The other main division [encompasses] the entire domestic state police; this division attends to the general public safety or poor relief, health, the preservation of basic life necessities, educational institutions, the agricultural and artisanal industries, factories, trade, public spaces, as well as canals and roads, the staffing of the provincial authorities and corporations, their formation, internal constitution, and so on.

This main division would be broken down into four subdivisions, namely:

1. one section or department for public safety, poor relief, the preservation of basic life necessities, the supervision of education and the composition of the rural, municipal, and estate corporations, and the administrative organizations;

2. one section for the policing of commerce; this section attends to agriculture or the artisanal trades, to factories, trade, roads, canals;

3. one section for the medical system;

4. one for public education, educational institutions of the scientific arts and of elementary knowledge. [ . . . ]

The reformed structure of the highest agencies would also require a reorganization of the provincial authorities.

The establishment of the provincial administration assumed very different forms in the Prussian state, in many parts of which, namely the German provinces, there were, in addition to the chambers, estates, or corporations of certain classes of owners, others, namely Silesia and New Prussia, that were administered exclusively by Landes-Kollegien. Some estates had an active share in the territorial administration, they were consulted on laws and the provincial constitution, they approved dues for the needs of the province, they exercised a certain control over the use of money and the management of affairs by the Landes-Kollegien, and they had a legally organized constitution. This was the case in Cleves, March, Electoral March, and Pomerania. In other provinces, the estates were assigned the main branches of the state administration, for example, in the form of the Administrations-Kollegio in East Frisia. In others, the estates were assigned only a single branch, for example, the fire brigade or poor relief, or they were themselves members of the Landes-Kollegien, for example, in Gelders.

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