An influential group of 18th-c. economic theorists, usually known in their time (and sometimes derided) as économistes. They may be said to have founded scientific economics in France. Their leader was Quesnay, whose disciples included Dupont de Nemours, La Rivière, and Mirabeau père.
‘Physiocratie’ means the government of nature. In true Enlightenment fashion, Quesnay believed in a God-given natural order; the philosopher's task is to develop this basic ‘evidence’ by scientific calculations leading to greater prosperity and happiness. Physiocracy's central tenet is that all wealth comes from the land; only agriculture provides a produit net (real return on investment) and this wealth, if allowed to circulate freely, generates the economic life of society. Corollaries include the sanctity of private property, protected by a benevolent monarchy, freedom of production and trade, and a single tax based on agricultural revenue. The more archaic aspects of this system, including its underestimation of industry and commerce, were rejected by Turgot, who in his public role was briefly able to put Physiocracy into practice, modernizing agriculture, freeing it from old rules and customs, reforming taxation, and allowing free trade in grain.
[Peter France]
