A brief explanation of the term "Physiocrat".
It does leave out one very important point, which is that the Physiocrats believed that agriculture was the only form of true wealth.
The Physiocrats
Opponents of Mercantilism in general and Colbertisme in particular, the "Physiocrats" emerged under the leadership of
François Quesnay - private physician to Madame de Pomapadour (pictured above), the mistress of Louis XV and sponsor
of the Physiocratic clique.
The cornerstone of the Physiocratic doctrine, which built upon the work of Richard Cantillon - was F. Quesnay's
Tableau Économique (1758) (click here for a fascimile and here for a numerical example and analysis of the Tableau),
depicted a "natural order" of economic affairs which can be attained with minimal governmental interference - their
laissez-faire approach included free trade, a simplified rent tax system and a hands-off policy on internal production and
commerce. They had a "land theory of value" which produced a "produit net" - or surplus -leading them to classify
industry and commerce as "sterile".
Originally, the term "Physiocrats" was reserved for Quesnay and the inner circle of his disciples - Mirabeau, Gourney,
Mercier de la Riviere and Dupont de Nemours. However, one might also include Jacques Turgot who advanced a
distinctly different and more advanced version of the Physiocratic doctrine in his Reflections (1770) which proved to be
highly influential upon Adam Smith . The Mercantilists policy doctrines were clear enough: external and internal free
trade (France was then covered with internal road tolls as well as possessing a highly protectionist foreign trade policy),
opposition to the curvée, land reform (i.e. land enclosures) to precipitate an agrarian revolution and, most famously, a
call for fiscal reform in the form of a single tax upon land rent. For most other economic matters, they recommended a
laissez-faire, laissez-passer (let do, let pass) approach.
www.econ.jhu.edu/people/fonseca/het/physioc.htm&docid=14805121 |
