public conversation in combination with universal cultivated manners.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Prussia had therefore access, like no other German state, to the skill set for the application of pan-European Enlightenment ideas to develop more rational political and administrative institutions. The princes of Saxony would carry out a comprehensive series of fundamental fiscal, administrative, judicial, educational, cultural and general economic reforms. The reforms were aided by the country's strong urban structure and influential