Notwithstanding Frederick's attempts to impose Enlightenment ideas on education and justice, the Hessian government had devoted its first decade primarily to rebuilding the economy and living standards after the cataclysm of the Seven Years' War. By 1770 it stood on the threshold of two new challenges: an anticipated exhaustion of cash reserves following the end of British subsidy payments, and a very real shortage of food caused by the crop failures of 1770–1. Whereas the fiscal crisis could be resolved by administrative belt-tightening and ultimately by Hessian involvement in the American Revolution, the agrarian crisis elicited new strategies in addressing the country's economic and social problems. During the previous decade the regime had stressed helping the masses of poor people, mainly by remedial relief, and building industry and commerce. At midreign the regime shifted its approach to the problem of poverty from remedial relief to prevention, primarily by boosting peasant productivity. It also gradually began to identify and correct some of the flaws in its mercantile policy, adopting a more balanced approach that placed greater emphasis on agricultural development.

Once again, however, a subsistence crisis coincided with concern over money, with the shortcomings of the fiscal and administrative system inspiring the government's immediate attention and ultimately coloring its approach to economic and social reform. Frederick had been eager to set up a more efficient Staatssystem since the mid–1760s. This concern continued to grow, especially after Great Britain had completed its subsidy payments in 1770.