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review on: Alexander Kustermann, Konjunktursteuerung durch »Deficit Spending«? Eine rechtshistorische Untersuchung zu den ideengeschichtlichen Ursprüngen des Stabilitätsgesetzes und der Haushaltsreform 1967–1969, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2020, 252 S., ISBN 978-3-16-157645-4

The article questions the previous explanations of the economic policy of the German Empire. On the basis of the divergence in the regulatory regimes of central banks and stock credit banks, it can be shown that the regulation of the financial markets hardly followed a coherent regulatory policy course, but was at best committed to the establishment of a solid money market. This corresponded less to the image of an »intervention state« than to the function of the state as an institutional guarantor of capitalist economic activity.

Industrialization in legal history has hitherto often been regarded as part of the history of private law and economic legal history. However, the role of the state in this process is still unclear: What concrete measures were taken by the state in order to promote industry and trade? What kind of normative and legal instruments did the state apply in order to encourage economic growth? The following article tries to find answers to these questions in the sources of general public law between 1815 and 1848. Taking the kingdom of Saxony as an example, it can be observed that the models developed in public law theory were also widely implemented in public practice before 1848.