Johann Joachim Becher (6 May 1635 – October 1682), was a German
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
,
alchemistAlchemy is both a philosophy and a practice with an aim of achieving ultimate wisdom as well as immortality, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties...
, precursor of
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
, scholar and adventurer, best known for his development of the
phlogiston theoryThe phlogiston theory , first stated in 1667 by Johann Joachim Becher, is a defunct scientific theory that posited the existence of a fire-like element called "phlogiston" that was contained within combustible bodies, and released during combustion...
and his advancement of Austrian cameralism.
He was born in
SpeyerSpeyer is a city in Germany with approx. 50,000 inhabitants, located beside the river Rhine. It lies 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Its oldest known name was Civitas Nemetum, named by a Teutonic tribe, the Nemeter, settling in this area...
. His father, a Lutheran minister, died while he was a child, leaving a widow and three children. At the age of thirteen Becher found himself responsible not only for his own support but also for that of his mother and brothers. He learned and practiced several small handicrafts, and devoting his nights to study of the most miscellaneous description and earned a pittance by teaching. In 1654, at the age of nineteen, he published an edition of Salzthal’s
Tractatus de lapide trismegisto; his
Metallurgia followed in 1660; and the next year appeared his
Character pro notitia linguarum universali, in which he gives 10,000 words for use as a
universal languageA universal language is a hypothetical historical or mythical language said to be spoken and understood by all or most of the world's population; or, in some circles, is said to be understood by all living things, beings, and objects alike...
. In 1663, he published his
Oedipum Chemicum and a book on animals, plants and minerals (
Thier- Kräuter- und Bergbuch). At the same time, he was full of schemes, practical and impractical.
Chemistry as an earnest and respectable science is often said to date from 1661, when Robert BoyleRobert Boyle was a natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor, and gentleman scientist, also noted for his writings in theology. He is best known for the formulation of Boyle's law...
of Oxford published The Sceptical ChymistThe Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes is the title of Robert Boyle's masterpiece of scientific literature, published in London in 1661. In the form of a dialogue, the Sceptical Chymist presented Boyle's hypothesis that matter consisted of atoms and clusters of atoms in...
—the first work to distinguish between chemists and alchemists—but it was a slow and often erratic transition. Into the eighteenth century scholars could feel oddly comfortable in both camps—like the German Johann Becher, who produced sober and unexceptionable work on mineralogy called Physica Subterranea, but who also was certain that, given the right materials, he could make himself invisible.
Wandering scholar
In 1657, he was appointed professor of medicine at the University of Mainz and body-physician to the archbishop-
electorThe Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors....
. In 1666, he was made councillor of commerce (Commerzienrat) at
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, where he had gained the powerful support of Albrecht, Count Zinzendorf, prime minister and grand chamberlain of the emperor
Leopold I.| align=right | Leopold I Habsburg , Holy Roman emperor, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, was the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margarita of Austria...
Sent by the emperor on a mission to the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
, he wrote there in ten days his
Methodus Didactica, which was followed by the
Regeln der Christlichen Bundesgenossenschaft and the
Politischer Discurs von den eigentlichen Ursachen des Auf- und Abnehmens der Städte, Länder und Republiken. In 1669, he published his
Physica subterranea, and the same year was engaged with the count of Hanau in a scheme for settling a large territory between the
OrinocoThe Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at 2,140 km, . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia covers 880,000 km², 76.3% in Venezuela with the rest in Colombia. The Orinoco and its tributaries are the major transportation system for eastern and interior Venezuela...
and the
AmazonThe Amazon River of South America is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next eight largest rivers combined. The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow. During...
.
Meanwhile he had been appointed physician to the elector of
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
; but in 1670 he was again in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
advising on the establishment of a silk factory and propounding schemes for a great company to trade with the
Low CountriesThe Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers...
and for a canal to unite the
RhineThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
and
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
.
In 1678, he crossed to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He travelled to
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
where he visited the mines at the request of
Prince RupertRupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria , commonly called Prince Rupert of the Rhine, , soldier, inventor and amateur artist in mezzotint, was a younger son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Elizabeth Stuart, and the nephew of King Charles I of England, who created him Duke of...
. He afterwards went for the same purpose to
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
, where he spent a year. At the beginning of 1680, he presented a paper to the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
in which he attempted to deprive
HuygensChristiaan Huygens, FRS was a prominent Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist, horologist, and writer of early science fiction...
of the honour of applying the pendulum to the
measurement of timeTimeline of time measurement technology* 270 BC - Ctesibius builds a popular water clock, called a clepsydra* 46 BC - Julius Caesar and Sosigenes develop a solar calendar with leap years...
. In 1682, he returned to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, where he wrote the
Chymischer Glücks-Hafen, Oder Grosse Chymische Concordantz Und Collection, Von funffzehen hundert Chymischen Processen and died in October of the same year.
Austrian Cameralist
Johann Joachim Becher was also the most original and influential theorist of Austrian cameralism. Like the cameralists in general, Becher sought to balance between the need to reinstate postwar levels of population and production both in the countryside and the towns. Yet, by leaning more seriously on trade and commerce Austrian cameralism helped to transfer attention to the troubles of the monarchy’s urban economies. Before his death
Ferdinand IIFerdinand II is the name of:* Ferdinand II of Leon , king from 1157* Fernando II, Duke of Braganza, aka Ferdinand II,...
had already taken some corrective steps by attempting to ease the debts of the Bohemian towns and to put limits on some of the land-holding nobility’s commercial rights. Even though preceding Habsburgs had held the guilds responsible for their restrictiveness, wastefulness, and the poor value of the merchandise they created, Ferdinand II ramped up the pressure by extending rights to private artisans who usually then earned the fortification of powerful local leaders such as seigneurs, military commanders, churches, and universities. An edict by
Leopold ILeopold I may refer to:*Leopold I, Margrave of Austria , first Margrave of Austria*Leopold I, Duke of Austria , co-Duke of Austria and Styria with Frederick I...
in 1689 had granted the government the right to monitor and control the number of masters and cut down on the monopoly effect of guild operations. Even previous to then Becher, who was against all forms of
monopolyIn economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it...
, surmised that a third of the Austrian lands’ 150,000 artisans were "Schwarzarbeiter" who were not in a guild.
Immediately after the Thirty Years’ War the Bohemian towns had petitioned Ferdinand to refine its own raw materials into more finished goods for export. Becher became the leading force in attempting this conversion. By 1666 he had inspired the creation of a Commerce Commission (Kommerzkollegium) in Vienna, as well as the reestablishment of the first postwar silk plantation on the Lower Austrian estates of Hofkammer President Sinzendorf. Becher then subsequently helped create a Kunst- und Werkhaus in which foreign masters trained non-guild artisans in the production of finished goods. By 1672 he had promoted the construction of a wool factory in Linz. Four years later he established a textile workhouse for vagabonds in the Boemian town of Tabor that eventually employed 186 spinners under his own directorship.
Some of Becher’s projects met with limited success. In time Linz’s new wool factory even became on of the largest and most important in Europe. Yet most of the government initiatives ended in failure. The Commerce Commission was doomed by Sinzendorf’s corruption and indifference. The Tabor workhouse nearly collapsed after just five years owing to the lack of government funding, and was then destroyed two years later during the Turkish invasion. The Oriental Company was fatally handicapped y a combination of poor management, government export prohibitions against Turkey, the opposition of Ottoman (principally Greek) merchants, and ultimately by the outbreak of war. The Kunst- und Werkhaus also folded during the 1680s, partly because of the regime’s unwillingness to import a significant number of foreign, Protestant teachers and skilled workers.
External Links
- http://www.johann-joachim-becher.de/content/content.php?auswahl=becherpreis
- http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi293.htm - Engines of our Ingenuity
Further Reading
- Anthony Endres, Neoclassical Microeconomic Theory: The Founding Austrian Version (London: Routledge Press, 1997).
- Erik Grimmer-Solem, The Rise of Historical Economics and Social Reform in Germany 1864-1894(New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).