Early 19th century. The principle of departments is a child of the French revolution. What was before is essentially different from that. It's especially visible for example in Prussia, where the reforms of Stein and Hardenberg clearly replaced the old institutions with ministries Germany more or less has until today.
Prior to that, there were no parallels at all between the branches of administration. Matters of foreign policy were mostly done by the king, diplomats and whoever had influence (though a minister of foreign affairs had existed shortly before the reforms), the "secretaries" in the "cabinet" were office assistants who served directly under the king but did few to no decision making, the archaic privy council still existed but had lost all of its responsibilities other than matters concerning the church, and the Generaldirektorium was responsible for almost everything from war to taxes to finances to the royal domain and royal prerogatives.
The Generaldirektorium was partitioned into territorial districts that all had different laws, levels of sovereignty (Prussia was still part of the HRE after all) and a member of the Direktorium that was supposed to work on it. Some members had leading positions or were regarded as experts on certain matters, but in the end, their responsibility wasn't for a department, but for their district, and in addition, everyone was responsible for the work of the Generaldirektorium as a whole. Newly acquired provinces in Franconia and Poland were managed differently. Some members were also diplomats, members of the privy council, landed nobility, and most were in the military.
England, that some other commentors have written about, is probably the worst example because it can only be one for itself. Its constitutional tradition is entirely different from continental Europe. The UK avoided clear breakages and kept many of its archaisms at least in name, so it's much harder to narrow down when it had finished evolving into a modern state. However, the influence of the French revolution of course was there and decisive.
Sataniel98 t1_j3loidh wrote
Reply to When did government departments and government budgets become invented? by megamindwriter
Early 19th century. The principle of departments is a child of the French revolution. What was before is essentially different from that. It's especially visible for example in Prussia, where the reforms of Stein and Hardenberg clearly replaced the old institutions with ministries Germany more or less has until today.
Prior to that, there were no parallels at all between the branches of administration. Matters of foreign policy were mostly done by the king, diplomats and whoever had influence (though a minister of foreign affairs had existed shortly before the reforms), the "secretaries" in the "cabinet" were office assistants who served directly under the king but did few to no decision making, the archaic privy council still existed but had lost all of its responsibilities other than matters concerning the church, and the Generaldirektorium was responsible for almost everything from war to taxes to finances to the royal domain and royal prerogatives.
The Generaldirektorium was partitioned into territorial districts that all had different laws, levels of sovereignty (Prussia was still part of the HRE after all) and a member of the Direktorium that was supposed to work on it. Some members had leading positions or were regarded as experts on certain matters, but in the end, their responsibility wasn't for a department, but for their district, and in addition, everyone was responsible for the work of the Generaldirektorium as a whole. Newly acquired provinces in Franconia and Poland were managed differently. Some members were also diplomats, members of the privy council, landed nobility, and most were in the military.
England, that some other commentors have written about, is probably the worst example because it can only be one for itself. Its constitutional tradition is entirely different from continental Europe. The UK avoided clear breakages and kept many of its archaisms at least in name, so it's much harder to narrow down when it had finished evolving into a modern state. However, the influence of the French revolution of course was there and decisive.