Anne Robert Jacques Turgot

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne[a] (/tʊərˈɡoʊ/;

Anne Robert Jacques
French: [tyʁgo]; 10 May 1727 – 18 March 1781), commonly
Turgot
known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman.
Originally considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered
as an early advocate for economic liberalism.[2] He is thought to
be the first economist to have recognized the law of diminishing
marginal returns in agriculture.[3]

Contents
Education
Idea of progress
Early appointments
Intendant of Limoges, 1761–1774 Portrait of Turgot by Antoine
Réflexions Graincourt, now in Versailles
As minister, 1774–1776 Born 10 May 1727
American Revolution Paris
Fall Died 18 March 1781
Commentary on Turgot (aged 53)
Paris
Notes
Nationality French
References
Further reading Field Political economics

External links School or Physiocrats

tradition
Alma mater Sorbonne
Education Influences François Quesnay
Born in Paris, he was the youngest son of Michel-Étienne Turgot,
"provost of the merchants" of Paris, and Madeleine Francoise Martineau de Brétignolles, and came from
an old Norman family.[4] As one of four children, he had a younger sister and two older brothers, one of
whom, Étienne-François Turgot (1721–1789), was a naturalist, and served as administrator of Malta and
governor of French Guiana. Anne Robert Jacques was educated for the Church, and at the Sorbonne, to
which he was admitted in 1749 (being then styled abbé de Brucourt). He delivered two remarkable Latin
dissertations, On the Benefits which the Christian Religion has conferred on Mankind, and On the
Historical Progress of the Human Mind.[5] In 1750 he decided not to take holy orders, giving as his
reason that "he could not bear to wear a mask all his life."[6]
The first sign we have of his interest in economics is a letter
(1749) on paper money, written to his fellow-student the abbé de
Cicé, refuting the abbé Jean Terrasson's defence of John Law's
system. He was fond of verse-making, and tried to introduce into
French verse the rules of Latin prosody, his translation of the
fourth book of the Aeneid into classical hexameter verses being
greeted by Voltaire as "the only prose translation in which he had
found any enthusiasm."[5]

Idea of progress
The first complete statement of the Idea of Progress is that of
Turgot, in his "A Philosophical Review of the Successive Arms of Baron Turgot: Ermine fretty
Advances of the Human Mind" (1750). For Turgot progress of ten pieces gules, nailed or[1]
covers not simply the arts and sciences but, on their base, the
whole of culture – manner, mores, institutions, legal codes,
economy, and society.[7]

Early appointments
In 1752, he became substitut, and later conseiller in the parlement of Paris, and in 1753 maître des
requêtes. In 1754 he was a member of the chambre royale which sat during an exile of the parlement. In
Paris he frequented the salons, especially those of Mme de Graffigny – whose niece, Mlle de Ligniville
("Minette"), later Mme Helvétius, he is supposed at one time to have wished to marry; they remained
lifelong friends – Mme Geoffrin, Mme du Deffand, Mlle de Lespinasse and the duchesse d'Enville. It was
during this period that he met the leaders of the "physiocratic" school, Quesnay and Vincent de Gournay,
and with them Dupont de Nemours, the abbé Morellet and other economists.[5]

In 1743 and 1756, he accompanied Gournay, the intendant of commerce, during Gournay's tours of
inspection in the provinces. (Gournay's bye-word on the government's proper involvement in the
economy – "laisser faire, laisser passer" – would pass into the vocabulary of economics.) In 1760, while
travelling in the east of France and Switzerland, he visited Voltaire, who became one of his chief friends
and supporters. All this time he was studying various branches of science, and languages both ancient
and modern. In 1753 he translated the Questions sur le commerce from the English of Josias Tucker, and
in 1754 he wrote his Lettre sur la tolérance civile, and a pamphlet, Le Conciliateur, in support of
religious tolerance. Between 1755 and 1756 he composed various articles for the Encyclopédie,[8] and
between 1757 and 1760 an article on Valeurs des monnaies, probably for the Dictionnaire du commerce
of the abbé Morellet.[5] In 1759 appeared his work Eloge de Gournay.[9]

Intendant of Limoges, 1761–1774

In August 1761, Turgot was appointed intendant (tax collector) of the genéralité of Limoges, which
included some of the poorest and most over-taxed parts of France; here he remained for thirteen years.
He was already deeply imbued with the theories of Quesnay and Gournay, and set to work to apply them
as far as possible in his province. His first plan was to continue the work, already initiated by his
predecessor Tourny, of making a fresh survey of the land (cadastre), in order to arrive at a more just
assessment of the taille; he also obtained a large reduction in the contribution of the province. He
published his Avis sur l'assiette et la repartition de la taille (1762–1770), and as president of the Société
d'agriculture de Limoges offered prizes for essays on the principles of taxation. Quesnay and Mirabeau
had advocated a proportional tax (impôt de quotité),[10] but Turgot proposed a distributive tax (impôt de
repartition). Another reform was the substitution for the corvée of a tax in money levied on the whole
province, the construction of roads being handed over to contractors, by which means Turgot was able to
leave his province with a good system of highways, while distributing more justly the expense of their
construction.[5]

In 1769, he wrote his Mémoire sur les prêts à intérêt, on the occasion of a scandalous financial crisis at
Angoulême, the particular interest of which is that in it the question of lending money at interest was for
the first time treated scientifically, and not merely from the ecclesiastical point of view. Turgot's opinion
was that a compromise had to be reached between both methods. Among other works written during
Turgot's intendancy were the Mémoire sur les mines et carrières, and the Mémoire sur la marque des
fers, in which he protested against state regulation and interference and advocated free competition. At
the same time he did much to encourage agriculture and local industries, among others establishing the
manufacture of porcelain at Limoges. During the famine of 1770–1771 he enforced on landowners "the
obligation of relieving the poor" and especially the métayers (sharecroppers) dependent upon them, and
organized in every province ateliers and bureaux de charité for providing work for the able-bodied and
relief for the infirm, while at the same time he condemned indiscriminate charity. It may be noted that
Turgot always made the curés the agents of his charities and reforms when possible. It was in 1770 that
he wrote his famous Lettres sur la liberté du commerce des grains, addressed to the controller-general,
the abbé Terray. Three of these letters have disappeared, having been sent to Louis XVI by Turgot at a
later date and never recovered, but those remaining demonstrate that free trade in grain is to the interest
of landowner, farmer and consumer alike, and in forcible terms demand the removal of all restrictions.[5]

Réflexions
Turgot's best known work, Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth,[11] was written early
in the period of his intendancy, ostensibly for the benefit of two young Chinese students.[12] Written in
1766, it appeared in 1769–1770 in Dupont's journal, the Ephémérides du citoyen, and was published
separately in 1776. Dupont, however, made various alterations in the text, in order to bring it more into
accordance with Quesnay's doctrines, which led to a coolness between him and Turgot.[5][13]

In the Réflexions, after tracing the origin of commerce, Turgot develops Quesnay's theory that land is the
only source of wealth, and divides society into three classes, the productive or agricultural, the salaried
(the classe stipendiée) or artisan class, and the land-owning class (classe disponible). He also proposes a
notable theory of the interest rate. After discussing the evolution of the different systems of cultivation,
the nature of exchange and barter, money, and the functions of capital, he sets forth the theory of the
impôt unique, i.e. that only the net product (produit net) of the land should be taxed. In addition he
demanded the complete freedom of commerce and industry.[5]

As minister, 1774–1776
Turgot owed his appointment as minister of the navy in July 1774 to Maurepas, the "Mentor" of Louis
XVI, to whom he was warmly recommended by the abbé Very, a mutual friend. His appointment met
with general approval, and was hailed with enthusiasm by the philosophes. A month later (24 August) he
was appointed Controller-General of Finances. His first act was to submit to the king a statement of his
guiding principles: "No bankruptcy, no increase of taxation, no borrowing." Turgot's policy, in face of the
desperate financial position, was to enforce the most rigid economy in all departments. All departmental
expenses were to be submitted for the approval of the controller-
general, a number of sinecures were suppressed, the holders of them
being compensated, and the abuse of the acquits au comptant was
attacked, while Turgot appealed personally to the king against the
lavish giving of places and pensions. He also contemplated a
thorough-going reform of the Ferme Générale, but contented
himself, as a beginning, with imposing certain conditions on the
leases as they were renewed – such as a more efficient personnel,
and the abolition for the future of the abuse of the croupes (the name
given to a class of pensions), a reform which Terray had shirked on
finding how many persons in high places were interested in them,
and annulling certain leases, such as those of the manufacture of
gunpowder and the administration of the royal mails, the former of
which was handed over to a company with the scientist Lavoisier as
one of its advisers, and the latter superseded by a quicker and more
comfortable service of diligences which were nicknamed
"turgotines". He also prepared a regular budget. Turgot's measures
succeeded in considerably reducing the deficit, and raised the
national credit to such an extent that in 1776, just before his fall, he
was able to negotiate a loan with some Dutch bankers at 4%; but the
deficit was still so large as to prevent him from attempting at once to
realize his favourite scheme of substituting for indirect taxation a
single tax on land. He suppressed, however, a number of octrois and
minor duties,[b] and opposed, on grounds of economy, the
participation of France in the American Revolutionary War, though
without success.[5]

Turgot at once set to work to establish free trade in grain, but his
edict, which was signed on 13 September 1774, met with strong
Statue of Turgot at the Hôtel de
opposition even in the conseil du roi. A striking feature was the Ville, Paris
preamble, setting forth the doctrines on which the edict was based,
which won the praise of the philosophes and the ridicule of the wits;
this Turgot rewrote three times, it is said, in order to make it "so clear that any village judge could
explain it to the peasants." The opposition to the edict was strong. Turgot was hated by those who had
been interested in the speculations in grain under the regime of the abbé Terray, among whom were
included some of the princes of the blood. Moreover, the commerce des blés had been a favourite topic of
the salons for some years past, and the witty Galiani, the opponent of the physiocrats, had a large
following. The opposition was now continued by Linguet and by Necker, who in 1775 published his
Essai sur la législation et le commerce des grains. But Turgot's worst enemy was the poor harvest of
1774, which led to a slight rise in the price of bread in the winter and early spring of 1774–1775. In April
disturbances arose at Dijon, and early in May there occurred those extraordinary bread-riots known as the
guerre des farines, which may be looked upon as a first sample of the French Revolution, so carefully
were they organized. Turgot showed great firmness and decision in repressing the riots, and was loyally
supported by the king throughout. His position was strengthened by the entry of Malesherbes into the
ministry (July 1775).[5]
All this time Turgot had been preparing his famous Six Edicts, which were finally presented to the
conseil du roi (January 1776). Of the six edicts four were of minor importance, but the two which met
with violent opposition were, firstly, the edict suppressing the corvées, and secondly, that suppressing the
jurandes and maîtrises, by which the craft guilds maintained their privileges. In the preamble to the
former Turgot boldly announced as his object the abolition of privilege, and the subjection of all three
Estates of the realm to taxation; the clergy were afterwards excepted, at the request of Maurepas. In the
preamble to the edict on the jurandes he laid down as a principle the right of every man to work without
restriction.[c] He obtained the registration of the edicts by the lit de justice of 12 March, but by that time
he had nearly everybody against him. His attacks on privilege had won him the hatred of the nobles and
the parlements; his attempted reforms in the royal household, that of the court; his free trade legislation,
that of the financiers; his views on tolerance and his agitation for the suppression of the phrase that was
offensive to Protestants in the king's coronation oath, that of the clergy; and his edict on the jurandes, that
of the rich bourgeoisie of Paris and others, such as the prince de Conti, whose interests were involved.
The queen disliked him for opposing the grant of favours to her protégés, and he had offended Mme. de
Polignac in a similar manner.[5] The queen played a key role in his disgrace later.[14]

All might yet have gone well if Turgot could have retained the confidence of the king, but the king could
not fail to see that Turgot had not the support of the other ministers. Even his friend Malesherbes thought
he was too rash, and was, moreover, himself discouraged and wished to resign. The alienation of
Maurepas was also increasing. Whether through jealousy of the ascendancy which Turgot had acquired
over the king, or through the natural incompatibility of their characters, he was already inclined to take
sides against Turgot, and the reconciliation between him and the queen, which took place about this time,
meant that he was henceforth the tool of the Polignac clique and the Choiseul party. About this time, too,
appeared a pamphlet, Le Songe de M. Maurepas, generally ascribed to the comte de Provence (Louis
XVIII), containing a bitter caricature of Turgot.[5]

Before relating the circumstances of Turgot's fall we may briefly resume his views on the administrative
system. With the physiocrats, he believed in an enlightened political absolutism, and looked to the king to
carry through all reforms. As to the parlements, he opposed all interference on their part in legislation,
considering that they had no competency outside the sphere of justice. He recognized the danger of the
recap of the old parlement, but was unable effectively to oppose it since he had been associated with the
dismissal of Maupeou and Terray, and seems to have underestimated its power. He was opposed to the
summoning of the states-general advocated by Malesherbes (6 May 1775), possibly on the ground that
the two privileged orders would have too much power in them. His own plan is to be found in his
Mémoire sur les municipalités, which was submitted informally to the king. In Turgot's proposed system,
landed proprietors alone were to form the electorate, no distinction being made among the three orders;
the members of the town and country municipalités were to elect representatives for the district
municipalités, which in turn would elect to the provincial municipalités, and the latter to a grande
municipalité, which should have no legislative powers, but should concern itself entirely with the
administration of taxation. With this was to be combined a whole system of education, relief of the poor,
etc. Louis XVI recoiled from this as being too great a leap in the dark, and such a fundamental difference
of opinion between king and minister was bound to lead to a breach sooner or later. Turgot's only choice,
however, was between "tinkering" at the existing system in detail and a complete revolution, and his
attack on privilege, which might have been carried through by a popular minister and a strong king, was
bound to form part of any effective scheme of reform.[5]

American Revolution
As minister of the navy from 1774 to 1776, he opposed financial support for the American Revolution.
He believed in the virtue and inevitable success of the revolution but warned that France could neither
financially nor socially afford to overtly aid it. French intellectuals saw America as the hope of mankind
and magnified American virtues to demonstrate the validity of their ideals along with seeing a chance to
avenge their defeat in the Seven Years' War. Turgot, however, emphasized what he believed were
American inadequacies. He complained that the new American state constitutions failed to adopt the
physiocratic principle of distinguishing for purposes of taxation between those who owned land and
those who did not, the principle of direct taxation of property holders had not been followed, and a
complicated legal and administrative structure had been created to regulate commerce. On the social
level, Turgot and his progressive contemporaries suffered further disappointment: a religious oath was
required of elected officials and slavery was not abolished. Turgot died in 1781 before the conclusion of
the war. Although disappointed, Turgot never doubted revolutionary victory.[15]

Fall
The immediate cause of Turgot's fall is uncertain. Some speak of a plot,
of forged letters containing attacks on the queen shown to the king as
Turgot's, of a series of notes on Turgot's budget prepared, it is said, by
Necker, and shown to the king to prove his incapacity. Others attribute it
to the queen, and there is no doubt that she hated Turgot for supporting
Vergennes in demanding the recall of the comte de Guînes, the
ambassador in London, whose cause she had ardently espoused at the
prompting of the Choiseul clique. Others attribute it to an intrigue of
Turgot after a portrait by Maurepas. On the resignation of Malesherbes (April 1776), whom Turgot
Charles-Nicolas Cochin wished to replace by the abbé Very, Maurepas proposed to the king as his
successor a nonentity named Amelot. Turgot, on hearing of this, wrote an
indignant letter to the king, in which he reproached him for refusing to
see him, pointed out in strong terms the dangers of a weak ministry and a weak king, and complained
bitterly of Maurepas's irresolution and subjection to court intrigues; this letter the king, though asked to
treat it as confidential, is said to have shown to Maurepas, whose dislike for Turgot it still further
embittered. With all these enemies, Turgot's fall was certain, but he wished to stay in office long enough
to finish his project for the reform of the royal household before resigning. To his dismay, he was not
allowed to do that. On 12 May 1776 he was ordered to send in his resignation. He at once retired to La
Roche-Guyon, the château of the duchesse d'Enville, returning shortly to Paris, where he spent the rest of
his life in scientific and literary studies, being made vice-president of the Académie des Inscriptions et
Belles-Lettres in 1777.[5]

Commentary on Turgot
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:

In character Turgot was simple, honourable and upright, with a passion for justice and truth.
He was an idealist, his enemies would say a doctrinaire, and certainly the terms "natural
rights," "natural law," frequently occur in his writings. His friends speak of his charm and
gaiety in intimate intercourse, but among strangers he was silent and awkward, and
produced the impression of being reserved and disdainful. On one point both friends and
enemies agree, and that is his brusquerie and his lack of tact in the management of men;
August Oncken points out with some reason the schoolmasterish tone of his letters, even to
 the king. As a statesman he has been very variously estimated, but it is generally agreed that
a large number of the reforms and ideas of the Revolution were due to him; the ideas did not
as a rule originate with him, but it was he who first gave them prominence. As to his
position as an economist, opinion is also divided. Oncken, to take the extreme of
condemnation, looks upon him as a bad physiocrat and a confused thinker, while Leon Say
considers that he was the founder of modern political economy, and that "though he failed in
the 18th century he triumphed in the 19th."[5]

Andrew Dickson White wrote in Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason (http
s://archive.org/details/cu31924011368218) (1915):

TURGOT...I present today one of the three greatest statesmen who fought unreason in
France between the close of the Middle Ages and the outbreak of the French Revolution –
Louis XI and Richelieu being the two other. And not only this: were you to count the
greatest men of the modern world upon your fingers, he would be of the number – a great
thinker, writer, administrator, philanthropist, statesman, and above all, a great character and
a great man. And yet, judged by ordinary standards, a failure. For he was thrown out of his
culminating position, as Comptroller-General of France, after serving but twenty months,
and then lived only long enough to see every leading measure to which he had devoted his
life deliberately and malignantly undone; the flagrant abuses which he had abolished
restored, apparently forever; the highways to national prosperity, peace, and influence,
which he had opened, destroyed; and his country put under full headway toward the greatest
catastrophe the modern world has seen.

He now, in 1749, at the age of twenty two, wrote... a letter which has been an object of
wonder among political thinkers ever since. Its subject was paper money. Discussing the
ideas of John Law, and especially the essay of Terrasson which had supported them, he
dissected them mercilessly, but in a way useful not only in those times but in these. ...As
regards currency inflation ... It still remains one of the best presentations of this subject ever
made; and what adds to our wonder is that it was not the result of a study of authorities, but
was worked out wholly from his own observation and thought. Up to this time there were no
authorities and no received doctrine on the subject; there were simply records of financial
practice more or less vicious; it was reserved for this young student, in a letter not intended
for publication, to lay down for the first time the great law in which the modern world, after
all its puzzling and costly experiences, has found safety.

Notes
a. Also spelled "de Laune" or "de Launes".
b. For an account of Turgot's financial administration, see Ch. Gomel, Causes financiéres, vol.
1.
c. Turgot was opposed to all labour associations of employers or employed, in accordance
with his belief in free competition.

References
 1. Bulletin de la Société d'émulation du Bourbonnais (https://archive.org/details/bulletin00moul
goog) (in French). Moulins: Société d'émulation du Bourbonnais. 1920. p. 291 (https://archiv
e.org/details/bulletin00moulgoog/page/n314). Retrieved 16 September 2017. "d'hermine,
treillissé de gueules de dix pièces turgot."
2. Vardi, Lianne (2012). The Physiocrats and the World of the Enlightenment (https://books.go
ogle.com/?id=ODwc2UsZAccC&pg=PA1&dq=French+physiocracy#v=onepage&q=turgot&f=
false). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 9781107021198.
3. "Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (1727–1781)" (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Turgot.
html), The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, Library of Economics and Liberty (2nd ed.),
Liberty Fund, 2008
4. Turgot is a Norman surname, former first name (Old Norse: Thorgaut) Norman family
names of Viking origin (http://www.viking.no/e/france/family-names.html) Surname
localization in France (http://www.geopatronyme.com/cgi-bin/carte/nomcarte.cgi?nom=turgo
t&client=cdip)
5. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques". Encyclopædia
Britannica. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 415–17.
6. H. Packwood Adams (1914), The French revolution (https://books.google.com/books?id=pV
9EAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA31), McClurg, p. 31
7. Robert Nisbet, History of the Idea of Progress (1980) ch 5
8. "Fairs and markets" and "Fondations"
9. Kafker, Frank A.: Notices sur les auteurs des 17 volumes de « discours » de l'Encyclopédie
(suite et fin). Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie Année (1990) Volume 8 Numéro
8 p. 118 (http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rde_0769-0886_1990_num
_8_1_1057)
10. "The impôt de quotité is the result of the application of a tax where the result cannot be
calculated in advance.
11. Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth (http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.c
a/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/turgot/reflecti)
12. A familiar literary device that permits the presentation of the subject from the ground up,
without appearing to undervalue the reader's intelligence. Compare the Persian Letters of
Montesquieu, with their solemn explication of European customs to an outsider, in
Montesquieu a vehicle for satire.
13. Peter D. Groenewegen (2002), Eighteenth-century Economics: Turgot, Beccaria and Smith
and Their Contemporaries (https://books.google.com/books?id=XthfFstAWOIC&pg=PA265),
Psychology Press, p. 265, ISBN 9780203458785
14. Fraser et al.
15. Wendell (1979)

Further reading
Brewer, Anthony (1987), "Turgot: Founder of Classical Economics", Economica, 54 (216):
417–28, doi:10.2307/2554177 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2554177), JSTOR 2554177 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/2554177).
Dakin, Douglas (1939), Turgot and the Ancien Régime in France, London: Methuen.
Groenewegen, Peter D. (2002), Eighteenth-Century Economics: Turgot, Beccaria and Smith
and their Contemporaries, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-27940-2.
Hart, David (2008). "Turgot, Anne-Robert-Jacques (1727–1781)". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.).
The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC).
Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 515–16. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n315
(https://doi.org/10.4135%2F9781412965811.n315). ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4.
 LCCN 2008009151 (https://lccn.loc.gov/2008009151). OCLC 750831024 (https://www.world
cat.org/oclc/750831024).
Kaplan, Steven L. (1976), Bread, Politics and Political Economy in the Reign of Louis XV (ht
tps://archive.org/details/breadpoliticspol00stev), The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ISBN 90-247-
1873-2.
Lifschitz, Avi (2004), "Language as the Key to the Epistemological Labyrinth: Turgot's
Changing View of Human Perception" (https://philpapers.org/archive/LAT-2.pdf) (PDF),
Historiographia Linguistica, 31 (2/3): 345–65, doi:10.1075/hl.31.2.07lif (https://doi.org/10.10
75%2Fhl.31.2.07lif)
Meek, Ronald L. (1976), Social Science and the Ignoble Savage, New York: Cambridge
University Press, ISBN 0-521-20969-2.
Palmer, R. R. (1976), "Turgot, Paragon of the Continental Enlightenment", Journal of Law
and Economics, 19 (3): 607–19, doi:10.1086/466889 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F466889).
Rothbard, Murray N. (1999). "Chapter 3. A.R.J. Turgot: Brief, Lucid, and Brilliant" (https://mi
ses.org/system/tdf/The%20Great%20Austrian%20Economists_2.pdf?file=1&type=documen
t) (PDF). In Holcombe, Randall G. (ed.). The Great Austrian Economists. Auburn, Alabama:
Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 0945466048.
Tellier, Luc-Normand, Face aux Colbert : les Le Tellier, Vauban, Turgot ... et l'avènement du
libéralisme, Presses de l'Université du Québec, 1987, 816 pages. Etext (http://www.puq.ca/
catalogue/livres/face-aux-colbert-1409.html)
Turgot (baron de l'Aulne), Anne-Robert-Jacques (2011), The Turgot Collection: Writings,
Speeches, and Letters of Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune (https://mises.org/li
brary/turgot-collection-writings-speeches-and-letters-anne-robert-jacques-turgot-baron-de-la
une), Ludwig von Mises Institute, p. 560, ISBN 9781933550947.
Wendel, Jacques M. (1979), "Turgot and the American Revolution", Modern Age, 23 (3):
282–89.

External links
Andrew Dickson White's Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason
(1915) at Wikiquote
Turgot Page (http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/turgot/index.html) at
McMaster
Jacques Turgot (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15092c.htm) at Catholic Encyclopedia
Turgot on progress and political economy (http://www.quebecoislibre.org/06/060730-3.htm)
Notice Biographique (http://www.taieb.net/auteurs/Turgot/Turgot01.html) by Paulette Taïeb.
12 mai 1776: "Renvoi de Turgot" (http://www.herodote.net/histoire05121.htm) by Hérodote
The Institut Turgot (http://www.turgot.org/) in Paris
Turgot & 18th and 19th century Dutch economics and politics (http://www.condorcet.nl/Dutc
hConnection.html)
The Brilliance of Turgot (http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard243.html) by
Murray N. Rothbard.
Works by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (https://librivox.org/author/11196) at LibriVox (public
domain audiobooks)
 Political offices
Preceded by
Secretaries of State for the Navy Succeeded by
Pierre Étienne Bourgeois
20 July 1774 – 24 August 1774 Antoine de Sartine
de Boynes
Succeeded by
Preceded by Controllers-General of Finances
Jean Étienne Bernard
Joseph Marie Terray 24 August 1774 – 12 May 1776
Ogier de Clugny

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Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
François Quesnay
François Quesnay (French: [fʁɑ̃ swa kɛnɛ]; 4 June 1694 – 16
François Quesnay
December 1774) was a French economist and physician of the
Physiocratic school.[1] He is known for publishing the "Tableau
économique" (Economic Table) in 1758, which provided the
foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats.[2] This was perhaps
the first work attempting to describe the workings of the
economy in an analytical way, and as such can be viewed as one
of the first important contributions to economic thought. His Le
Despotisme de la Chine, written in 1767, describes Chinese
politics and society, and his own political support for
constitutional despotism.[3]

Contents
Life François Quesnay, portrait by Heinz
Works Rieter
Economics Born 4 June 1694
Orientalism and China Méré near Versailles
See also Died 16 December 1774
Notes (aged 80)
Versailles
References
Nationality French
External links
School Physiocrats
Influences
Life Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Sun
Quesnay was born at Méré near Versailles, the son of an advocate Tzu, Jean-Baptiste Colbert,
and small landed proprietor. Apprenticed at the age of sixteen to a Cantillon
surgeon, he soon went to Paris, studied medicine and surgery Influenced
there, and, having qualified as a master-surgeon, settled down to Turgot, Manuel Belgrano, Henry
practice at Mantes. In 1737 he was appointed perpetual secretary George, Benjamin Franklin, Pierre
of the academy of surgery founded by François Gigot de la Samuel du Pont de Nemours, Adam
Peyronie, and became surgeon in ordinary to King Louis XV. In Smith
1744 he graduated as a doctor of medicine; he became physician
in ordinary to the king, and afterwards his first consulting physician, and was installed in the Palace of
Versailles. His apartments were on the entresol, whence the Réunions de l'entresol received their name.
Louis XV esteemed Quesnay highly, and used to call him his thinker. When he ennobled him he gave
him for arms three flowers of the pansy[4] (derived from pensée, in French meaning thought), with the
Latin motto Propter cogitationem mentis.[5]
He now devoted himself principally to economic studies, taking no part in the court intrigues which were
perpetually going on around him. Around 1750 he became acquainted with Jacques C. M. V. de Gournay
(1712–1759), who was also an earnest inquirer in the economic field; and round these two distinguished
men was gradually formed the philosophic sect of the Économistes, or, as for distinction's sake they were
afterwards called, the Physiocrates. The most remarkable men in this group of disciples were the elder
Mirabeau (author of L'Ami des hommes, 1756–60, and Philosophie rurale, 1763), Nicolas Baudeau
(Introduction a la philosophie économique, 1771), Guillaume-François Le Trosne (De l'ordre social,
1777), André Morellet (best known by his controversy with Galiani on the freedom of the grain trade
during the Flour War), Lemercier de La Rivière, and du Pont de Nemours. Adam Smith, during his stay
on the continent with the young Duke of Buccleuch in 1764–1766, spent some time in Paris, where he
made the acquaintance of Quesnay and some of his followers; he paid a high tribute to their scientific
services in his Wealth of Nations.[6][4]

Quesnay was married in 1718 to a woman named Marianne Woodsen, and had a son and a daughter; his
grandson by the former was a member of the first Legislative Assembly. He died on 16 December 1774,
having lived long enough to see his great pupil, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, in office
as minister of finance.[4]

Works
His economic writings are collected in the 2nd vol. of the
Principaux économistes, published by Guillaumin, Paris, with
preface and notes by Eugène Daire; also his Oeuvres
économiques et philosophiques were collected with an
introduction and note by August Oncken (Frankfort, 1888); a
facsimile reprint of the Tableau économique, from the original
MS., was published by the British Economic Association
(London, 1895). His other writings were the article "Évidence" in
the Encyclopédie, and Recherches sur l'évidence des vérites
geometriques, with a Projet de nouveaux éléments de géometrie,
1773. Quesnay's Eloge was pronounced in the Academy of
Sciences by Grandjean de Fouchy (see the Recueil of that
Academy, 1774, p. 134). See also F.J. Marmontel, Mémoires;
Mémoires de Mme. du Hausset; H. Higgs, The Physiocrats
(London, 1897).[4]

Economics
In 1758 he published the Tableau économique (Economic Table), Tableau économique
which provided the foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats.
This was perhaps the first work to attempt to describe the
workings of the economy in an analytical way, and as such can be viewed as one of the first important
contributions to economic thought.[7]

The publications in which Quesnay expounded his system were the following: two articles, on
"Fermiers" (Farmers) and on "Grains", in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert
(1756, 1757);[8][4] a discourse on the law of nature in the Physiocratie of Dupont de Nemours (1768);
Maximes générales de gouvernement economique d'un royaume agricole (1758), and the simultaneously
published Tableau économique avec son explication, ou extrait
des économies royales de Sully (with the celebrated motto,
Pauvres paysans, pauvre royaume; pauvre royaume, pauvre roi);
Dialogue sur le commerce et les travaux des artisans; and other
minor pieces.[4]

The Tableau économique, though on account of its dryness and

abstract form it met with little general favor, may be considered
the principal manifesto of the school. It was regarded by the
followers of Quesnay as entitled to a place amongst the foremost
products of human wisdom, and is named by the elder Mirabeau,
in a passage quoted by Adam Smith,[6] as one of the three great
inventions which have contributed most to the stability of
political societies, the other two being those of writing and of
money. Its object was to exhibit by means of certain formulas the
way in which the products of agriculture, which is the only
source of wealth, would in a state of perfect liberty be distributed
Tableau economique, 1965
among the several classes of the community (namely, the
productive classes of the proprietors and cultivators of land, and
the unproductive class composed of manufacturers and
merchants), and to represent by other formulas the modes of distribution which take place under systems
of Governmental restraint and regulation, with the evil results arising to the whole society from different
degrees of such violations of the natural order. It follows from Quesnay's theoretic views that the one
thing deserving the solicitude of the practical economist and the statesman is the increase of the net
product; and he infers also what Smith afterwards affirmed, on not quite the same ground, that the
interest of the landowner is strictly and indissolubly connected with the general interest of the society. A
small edition de luxe of this work, with other pieces, was printed in 1758 in the Palace of Versailles under
the king's immediate supervision, some of the sheets, it is said, having been pulled by the royal hand.
Already in 1767 the book had disappeared from circulation, and no copy of it is now procurable; but, the
substance of it has been preserved in the Ami des hommes of Mirabeau, and the Physiocratie of Dupont
de Nemours.[4]

Orientalism and China

Quesnay is known for his writings on Chinese politics and society. His book Le Despotisme de la Chine,
written in 1767, describes his views of the Chinese imperial system.[3] He was supportive of the
meritocratic concept of giving scholars political power, without the cumbersome aristocracy that
characterized French politics, and the importance of agriculture to the welfare of a nation. The phrase
laissez-faire, coined by fellow Physiocrat Vincent de Gournay, is postulated to have come from
Quesnay's writings on China.[3] Gregory Blue writes that Quesnay "praised China as a constitutional
despotism and openly advocated the adoption of Chinese institutions, including a standardized system of
taxation and universal education." Blue speculates that this may have influenced the 1793 establishment
of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal by the British Empire.[9] Quesnay's interests in Orientalism has
also been a source of criticism. Carol Blum, in her book Strength in Numbers on 18th century France,
labels Quesnay an "apologist for Oriental despotism."[10]
Because of his admiration of Confucianism, Quesnay's followers bestowed him with the title "Confucius
of Europe."[11] Quesnay's infatuation for Chinese culture, as described by Jesuits, led him to persuade the
son of Louis XV to mirror the "plowing of sacred land" by the Chinese emperor to symbolize the link
between government and agriculture.[12]

See also
Contributions to liberal theory
History of economic thought
Liberalism
Ronald L. Meek
Circular flow of income

Notes
1. Cutler J. Cleveland, "Biophysical economics" (http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biophysical_ec
onomics), Encyclopedia of Earth, Last updated: 14 September 2006.
2. See the biographical note in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels:
Volume 31 (International Publishers: New York, 1989) p. 605.
3. Ina Baghdiantz McCabe (15 July 2008). Orientalism in Early Modern France: Eurasian
Trade, Exoticism and the Ancien Regime. Berg Publishers. pp. 271–72. ISBN 978-1-84520-
374-0.
4. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Quesnay, François". Encyclopædia Britannica.
22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 742–743.
5. "Nouvelles Ephemerides, Économiques, Seconde Partie, Analyses, Et Critiques
Raisonnées. N° Premier. Éloge Historique De M. Quesnay, Contenant L'Analyse De Ses
Ouvrages, Par M. Le Cte D'A***" (http://www.taieb.net/auteurs/Quesnay/albon.html).
Taieb.net. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
6. Smith, Adam, 1937, The Wealth of Nations, N. Y.: Random House, p. 643; first published
1776.
7. Phillip Anthony O'Hara (1999). Encyclopedia of Political Economy (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=vkO8Z_078GoC&pg=PA848). Psychology Press. p. 848. ISBN 978-0-415-
18718-3. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
8. Kafker, Frank A.: Notices sur les auteurs des 17 volumes de « discours » de l'Encyclopédie
(suite et fin). Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie Année (1990) Volume 8 Numéro
8 p. 112 (http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rde_0769-0886_1990_num
_8_1_1057)
9. E. S. Shaffer (30 November 2000). Comparative Criticism: Volume 22, East and West:
Comparative Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. pp. 239–40. ISBN 978-0-521-
79072-7.
10. Carol Blum (5 February 2002). Strength in Numbers: Population, Reproduction, and Power
in Eighteenth-Century France. JHU Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-8018-6810-8.
11. Murray N. Rothbard (2006). Economic Thought Before Adam Smith. Ludwig von Mises
Institute. p. 366. ISBN 978-0-945466-48-2.
12. Geoffrey C. Gunn (2003). First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange, 1500 to 1800.
Rowman & Littlefield. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-7425-2662-4.

References
 Hobson, John M. (2004), The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization, Cambridge University
Press, ISBN 0-521-54724-5.

External links
Works by or about François Quesnay (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subje
ct%3A%22Quesnay%2C%20François%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22François%20Quesn
ay%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Quesnay%2C%20François%22%20OR%20creator%3
A%22François%20Quesnay%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Quesnay%2C%20F%2E%2
2%20OR%20title%3A%22François%20Quesnay%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Ques
nay%2C%20François%22%20OR%20description%3A%22François%20Quesnay%22%20O
R%20%28Fran%2Aois+Quesnay%29%29%20OR%20%28%221694-1774%22%20AND%2
0Quesnay%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive
Le Despotisme de la Chine (http://courses.umass.edu/pols294p/documents.html/quesnay.p
df) (1767) by François Quesnay, hosted on the University of Massachusetts website
François Quesnay (1694–1774) (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Quesnay.html). The
Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty (2nd ed.). Liberty
Fund. 2008.
François Quesnay (June 1766). "Analyse de la formule arithmétique du tableau
économiqueu de la distribution des dépenses annuelles d'une Nation agricole" (https://www.
taieb.net/auteurs/Quesnay/t1766t.html). Journal de l'Agriculture, du Commerce et des
Finances. 2 (3): 11–41.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=François_Quesnay&oldid=932015189"

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this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Physiocracy
Physiocracy (French: physiocratie; from the Greek for
"government of nature") is an economic theory developed by a
group of 18th-century Age of Enlightenment French economists
who believed that the wealth of nations derived solely from the
value of "land agriculture" or "land development" and that
agricultural products should be highly priced.[1] Their theories
originated in France and were most popular during the second
half of the 18th century. Physiocracy became one of the first
well-developed theories of economics.

François Quesnay (1694–1774) and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

(1727–1781) dominated the movement,[2] which immediately
preceded the first modern school, classical economics, which
began with the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of
Nations in 1776. François Quesnay, considered the
founding father of physiocracy,
The physiocrats made a significant contribution in their emphasis published the "Tableau économique"
on productive work as the source of national wealth. This (Economic Table) in 1758
contrasted with earlier schools, in particular mercantilism, which
often focused on the ruler's wealth, accumulation of gold, or the
balance of trade. Whereas the mercantilist school of economics
held that value in the products of society was created at the point
of sale,[3] by the seller exchanging his products for more money
than the products had "previously" been worth, the physiocratic
school of economics was the first to see labor as the sole source
of value. However, for the physiocrats, only agricultural labor
created this value in the products of society.[3] All "industrial"
and non-agricultural labors were "unproductive appendages" to
agricultural labor.[3]

At the time the physiocrats were formulating their ideas,

economies were overwhelmingly agrarian. That is presumably
why the theory considered only agricultural labor to be valuable. Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours,
Physiocrats viewed the production of goods and services as a prominent physiocrat. In his book
equivalent to the consumption of the agricultural surplus, since La Physiocratie, du Pont advocated
human or animal muscle provided the main source of power and low tariffs and free trade.
all energy derived from the surplus from agricultural production.
Profit in capitalist production was really only the "rent" obtained
by the owner of the land on which the agricultural production took place.[3]

"The physiocrats damned cities for their artificiality and praised more natural styles of living. They
celebrated farmers."[4] They called themselves les Économistes, but are generally referred to as
"physiocrats" to distinguish them from the many schools of economic thought that followed them.[5]
 Contents
Precursors
History
Tableau économique
Characteristics
Natural order
Individualism and laissez-faire
Private property
Diminishing returns
Investment capital
Subsequent developments
The New Physiocrats
See also
People
Notes
References
External links

Precursors
Physiocracy is an agrarianist philosophy which developed in the context of the prevalent European rural
society of the time. In the late Roman Republic, the dominant senatorial class was not allowed to engage
in banking or commerce[6] but relied on their latifundia, large plantations, for income. They
circumvented this rule through freedmen proxies who sold surplus agricultural goods.

Other inspiration came from China's economic system, then the largest in the world. Chinese society
broadly distinguished four occupations, with scholar-bureaucrats (who were also agrarian landlords) at
the top and merchants at the bottom (because they did not produce but only distributed goods made by
others). Leading physiocrats like François Quesnay were avid Confucianists who advocated China's
agrarian policies.[7] Some scholars have advocated connections with the school of agriculturalism, which
promoted utopian communalism.[8] One of the integral parts of physiocracy, laissez-faire, was adopted
from Quesnay's writings on China,[9] being a translation of the Chinese term wu wei.[10] The concept
natural order of physiocracy originated from "Way of Nature" of Chinese Taoism.[7]

History
The growing power of the centralized state control in the era of enlightened absolutism necessitated
centralized systematic information on the nation. A major innovation was the collection, use and
interpretation of numerical and statistical data, ranging from trade statistics, harvest reports, and death
notices to population censuses. Starting in the 1760s, officials in France and Germany began increasingly
to rely on quantitative data for systematic planning, especially regarding long-term economic growth. It
combined the utilitarian agenda of "enlightened absolutism" with the new ideas being developed in
economics. In Germany the trend was especially strong in Cameralism while in France it was an
important theme in physiocracy. [11]

Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert served as a member of Louis XIV's local administration of Paris,
and wrote pamphlets and booklets on subjects related to his work: taxation, grain trade, and money. Le
Pesant asserted that wealth came from self-interest and markets were connected by money flows (i.e. an
expense for the buyer is revenue for the producer). Thus he realized that lowering prices in times of
shortage – common at the time – was dangerous economically as it acted as a disincentive to production.
Generally, Le Pesant advocated less government interference in the grain market, as any such
interference would generate "anticipations" which would prevent the policy from working.[12]

For instance, if the government bought corn abroad, some people would speculate that there was likely to
be a shortage and would buy more corn, leading to higher prices and more of a shortage. This was an
early example of advocacy of free trade. In anonymously published tracts, Vauban proposed a system
known as La dîme royale: this involved major simplification of the French tax code by switching to a
relatively flat tax on property and trade. Vauban's use of statistics contrasted with earlier empirical
methods in economics.[2]

Around the time of the Seven Years' War between France and England (1756–63), the physiocracy
movement grew. Several journals appeared, signaling an increasing audience in France for new economic
ideas. Among the most important were the Journal Œconomique (1721–72), which promoted agronomy
and rational husbandry and the Journal du commerce (1759–62), which was heavily influenced by the
Irishman Richard Cantillon (1680–1734), both dominated by physiocrats; the Journal de l'agriculture, du
commerce et des finances (1765–74) and the Ephémérides du citoyen (1767–72 and 1774–76).[2]

Also, Vincent de Gournay (1712–1759), the Intendant du commerce, brought together a group of young
researchers including François Véron Duverger de Forbonnais (1722–1800) and one of the two most
famous physiocrats, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (1727–1781). The other, François Quesnay (1694–
1774), was among those writing prolifically in contemporaneous journals.[2]

In the 19th century Henry George in the United States advocated the collection of land rent as the
primary if not the sole source of public revenue.

Tableau économique
The Tableau économique or Economic Table is an economic model first described by François Quesnay
in 1759, which laid the foundation of the physiocrats’ economic theories.[13] It also contains the origins
of modern ideas on the circulation of wealth and the nature of interrelationships in the economy.[5]

The model Quesnay created consisted of three economic agents: the "proprietary" class consisted only of
landowners; the "productive" class consisted of agricultural laborers; the "sterile" class was made up of
artisans and merchants. The flow of production and cash between the three classes originated with the
proprietary class because they owned the land and bought from both of the other classes.

Characteristics

Natural order
The physiocrats thought there was a "natural order" that allowed human beings to live together. Men did
not come together via a somewhat arbitrary "social contract". Rather, they had to discover the laws of the
natural order that would allow individuals to live in society without losing significant freedoms.[14] This
concept of natural order had originated in China. The Chinese had believed that there can be good
government only when a perfect harmony exists between the "Way of Man" (governmental institutions)
and the "Way of Nature" (Quesnay's natural order).[7]

Individualism and laissez-faire

The physiocrats, especially Turgot, believed that self-interest was the motivation for each segment of the
economy to play its role. Each individual is best suited to determine what goods they want and what
work would provide them with what they want out of life. While a person might labor for the benefit of
others, they will work harder for their own benefit; however, each person's needs are being supplied by
many other people. The system works best when there is a complementary relationship between one
person's needs and another person's desires, and so trade restrictions place an unnatural barrier to
achieving one's goals. Laissez-faire was popularized by physiocrat Vincent de Gournay who is said to
have adopted the term from François Quesnay's writings on China.[9]

Private property
None of the theories concerning the value of land could work without strong legal support for the
ownership of private property. Combined with the strong sense of individualism, private property
becomes a critical component of the Tableau's functioning. The physiocrats believed in the institution of
private property. They saw property as a tree and its branches, as social institutions. They actually stated
that landlords must enjoy 2/5 on the land surpluses. They also advocated that landlords should be given
dues, otherwise they would take the land away from the cultivators.

Diminishing returns
Turgot was one of the first to recognize that "successive applications of the variable input will cause the
product to grow, first at an increasing rate, later at a diminishing rate until it reaches a maximum."[13]
This was a recognition that the productivity gains required to increase national wealth had an ultimate
limit, and, therefore, wealth could not be infinite.

Investment capital
Both Quesnay and Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune recognized that capital was needed by
farmers to start the production process, and both were proponents of using some of each year’s profits to
increase productivity. Capital was also needed to sustain the laborers while they produced their product.
Turgot recognizes that there is opportunity cost and risk involved in using capital for something other
than land ownership, and he promotes interest as serving a "strategic function in the economy".[13]

Subsequent developments
The ideas of the Physiocrats had an influence on Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and
above all Henry George, who appears at first to have come to similar beliefs independently. George was
the driving force behind what became known as the Single Tax movement (not to be confused with Flat
Tax). The Single Tax is a proposal for the use of the annual rental value of land (land value taxation) as
the principal or sole source of public revenue.

The New Physiocrats

The New Physiocratic League, also known as the New Physiocrats, is the most recent development in
physiocratic ideology. It introduced a comprehensive platform rooted in the original physiocratic
philosophy, and expanded and updated it to be adopted by modern political platforms. The New
Physiocrats advocate for an implementation of a variant of the land value tax, which they refer to as the
"unified location tax," as a main source of government revenues, while returning all income taxes back to
the labour market as an income supplement.[15]

See also
Agrarianism
Classical economics
Classical liberalism
Flour War
Free market
French Liberal School
Geolibertarianism
Georgism
Jeffersonian democracy
Land value tax

People
Richard Cantillon
François Quesnay
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot
Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay
Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
Pierre-Paul Lemercier de La Rivière de Saint-Médard
Nicolas Baudeau
Henry George

Notes
1. "physiocrat" (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/physiocrat?q=physiocracy
#physiocrat__5). Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
2. Steiner (2003), pp. 61–62
3. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels (1988), pp. 348, 355, 358.
4. Why Americans Value Rural Life by David B. Danbom
 5. The Penguin Dictionary of Economics, George Bannock, R. E. Baxter and Evan Davis. 5th
Edition. Penguin Books 1992 p. 329.
6. Byrd (1995), 34
7. Derk Bodde (2005), Chinese Ideas in the West (http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/ht
ml/state/ideas.pdf) p.6, Reprinted with permission in China: A Teaching Workbook, Asia for
Educators, Columbia University
8. Maverick, Lewis A. (1938). "Chinese Influences Upon the Physiocrats". Economic History 3.
9. Baghdiantz McCabe, Ina (2008). Orientalism in Early Modern France: Eurasian Trade
Exoticism and the Ancien Regime. Berg Publishers. pp. 271–72. ISBN 978-1-84520-374-0.
10. Clarke, J.J. (1997). Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western
Thought. Routledge. p. 50. ISBN 978-0415133760.
11. Lars Behrisch, "Statistics and Politics in the 18th Century." Historical Social
Research/Historische Sozialforschung (2016) 41#2: 238-257. online (https://dspace.library.u
u.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/357697/Statistics.pdf?sequence=1)
12. Steiner (2003), p. 61
13. Henry William Spiegel (1983) The Growth of Economic Thought, Revised and Expanded
Edition, Duke University Press. pp. 189, 195–96
14. Rist, Charles; Gide, Charles (1915). A history of economic doctrines from the time of the
physiocrats to the present day (https://archive.org/details/historyofeconomi00gideiala). D.C.
Heath and Company.
15. "Economic Reform Platform | New Physiocrats" (https://newphysiocrats.org/platform/). New
Physiocrats. Retrieved 2018-03-05.

References
Byrd, Robert (1995). The Senate of the Roman Republic. US Government Printing Office
Senate Document 103–23.
Henry William Spiegel (1983), The Growth of Economic Thought, Revised and Expanded
Edition, Duke University Press
Yves Charbit; Arundhati Virmani (2002) "The Political Failure of an Economic Theory:
Physiocracy" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3246619), Population, Vol. 57, No. 6. (Nov. –
Dec., 2002), pp. 855–83, Institut National d'Études Démographiques
"Theories of Surplus Value" from the Economic Manuscripts of 1861–1863" contained in
Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 30, New York: International
Publishers, 1988.
A. L. Muller (1978) Quesnay's Theory of Growth: A Comment (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2
662855), Oxford Economic Papers, New Series, Vol. 30, No. 1., pp. 150–56.
Steiner, Phillippe (2003) "Physiocracy and French Pre-Classical Political Economy" (http://o
nlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470999059.ch5/summary), Chapter 5. in eds.
Biddle, Jeff E, Davis, Jon B, & Samuels, Warren J.: A Companion to the History of
Economic Thought. Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
The History of Economic Thought Website (https://web.archive.org/web/20081202075607/ht
tp://homepage.newschool.edu/het/essays/youth), The New School of Social Research. 6
Feb. 2006
Tableau Économique – Modern view (https://web.archive.org/web/20150428055943/http://c
epa.newschool.edu/het/essays/youth/tableausum.htm)
A History of Economic doctrine from the time of the Physiocrats to the present day (https://o
penlibrary.org/books/OL7149809M/A_history_of_economic_doctrines_from_the_time_of_th
e_physiocrats_to_the_present_day) – Charles Gide and Charles Rist. 1915
Vinje, Victor Condorcet: Economics as if Soil and Health Matters(Nisus Publications, 2017)
External links
The Physiocrats (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02x97k6) - In Our Time - BBC Radio
4, 2013

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