François Quesnay

French economist and physician

• Born: June 4, 1694
• Birthplace: Méré, France
• Died: December 16, 1774
• Place of death: Versailles, France

In addition to being an eminent physician, Quesnay was the founder and leading theorist of Physiocratic, or laissez-faire, economics. Often considered the first modern school of economics, those following his theory came to be called the Physiocrats.

Early Life

Information about the early life of François Quesnay (fran-zwah kay-nay) is rather limited and not always dependable. The son of a modest farmer, he was orphaned at about the age of thirteen. Too poor to attend a school, he apparently learned to read with the limited assistance of either a gardener or a local priest. Soon he developed a voracious appetite for reading and acquiring knowledge, eventually becoming proficient in Greek and Latin. At about the age of seventeen, he entered into training as a Parisian engraver and worked as an apprentice for about five years. Sometime during this period, he married the daughter of a middle-class grocer, which significantly elevated his social status.

During the last years of his apprenticeship, Quesnay became interested in surgery and began to take courses at the surgeon’s college and the University of Paris. After completing his training, he was accepted as a member of the community of surgeons in Paris in 1718, and he then earned his living as a barber-surgeon at Mantes, where he acquired a reputation as an outstanding practitioner. While in Mantes, his wife and two of his children died. In 1734, he entered into the service of the duke of Villeroy, who introduced him to many prominent people. Meanwhile, by devoting his spare time to reading, studying, and writing, he developed a broad knowledge of philosophy and the natural sciences.

Life’s Work

In the 1730’s, François Quesnay wrote several tracts on surgery that enhanced his reputation. He was a leading voice in the movement to elevate the status of surgery as a medical science. He influenced the issuing of a royal edict in 1743 that separated surgeons from barbers. Awarded the rank of doctor of medicine in 1744, Quesnay subsequently became the physician of Madame de Pompadour, the powerful mistress of King Louis XV. Living at Versailles, he acquired firsthand knowledge of the serious political and financial difficulties of the monarchical government.

Quesnay was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1751. Because of his success in curing the dauphin of smallpox, he was made a noble in 1752, and that year he was also named a member of the Royal Society. Holding these prestigious positions, he established friendships with many of the intellectual leaders of the French Enlightenment.

He began his specialized research in economics in the mid-1750’s, when Denis Diderot, editor of the famous Encyclopédie: Ou, Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts, et des métiers (1751-1772; Encyclopedia, 1965), asked him to contribute several articles about agriculture and farmers. (Quesnay had a rural background.) In preparation for writing the entries, Quesnay read the works of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Richard Cantillon, and others. By combining their ideas with his own observations, he gradually developed his own eclectic theory. His first article, “Fermiers” (farmers), appeared in volume 6 (1756), and the following year, volume 7 included his article on grains. He wrote other articles that were never published, probably because the king withdrew permission to continue publishing the Encyclopedia.

By the time his encyclopedic articles appeared, Quesnay had developed the major components of his economic theory, called Physiocracy (from two Greek words, phusis, meaning nature, and kratos, meaning power or rule). As the term implies, he believed that he had discovered “natural laws” of economics that are universally valid. According to the theory, a prosperous agricultural sector provided the only foundation for a healthy economy. It was therefore necessary to maintain low taxes on agriculture and to promote agricultural profits through free trade. Although such a policy might mean high prices for consumers in the short term, farmers would reinvest their profits, which would eventually result in lower prices. Influenced by Jean-Claude-Marie-Vincent de Gournay’s writings, Quesney advocated minimal governmental intervention in the economy, an approach that both Gournay and Quesnay called laissez-faire (meaning “let it do” or “let it alone”).

Quesnay’s most famous work, Tableau économique (1758; The Economical Table, 1766), presented a circular flow diagram, outlining economic activities of production and distribution. According to The Economical Table, society was divided into three main classes: farmers, landowners, and others, who included manufacturers, skilled craftsmen, and merchants. Members of the third class were said to be “sterile” because they consumed everything they produced and left no surplus for future growth. Quesnay was highly critical of the French government’s regulations of the economy, which he referred to as Colbertisme (named after Louis XIV’s finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert). He argued that protecting French manufacturers from foreign competition had raised the cost of machinery for farmers, and that regulations of grain prices were harmful because they decreased the incentive of farmers to increase production.

By the late 1750’s, a group of like-minded associates were holding regular meetings with Quesnay and looking to him as their intellectual leader. His most loyal and outspoken collaborator was the comte de Mirabeau, a writer who later became a major revolutionary leader. Other significant disciples included Pierre-Paul Le Mercier de La Rivière, Pierre-Samuel du Pont de Nemours, and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. Within a few years, Quesney and his followers became known as économistes and Physiocrats.

Quesnay and Mirabeau collaborated in writing several works. In 1758, they drafted Traité de la monarchie, 1757-1759 (treatise on monarchy), which was not published until much later because of its strong criticisms of the French monarchy. In 1764, they published La Philosophie rurale (rural philosophy), which summarized Quesnay’s mature vision of political economics. In addition to the emphasis on laissez-faire economics, the book advocated a “single tax” on land and a “despotism of the laws.” By this date, Quesnay’s remarkable followers were widely disseminating, debating, and modifying his ideas with books, articles, and even a journal.

Quesnay continued to write newspaper essays into the late 1760’s. In addition to economic issues, he wrote about human rights, despotism, and foreign governments. His last book, Physiocratie (1767-1768; Physiocracy), was a two-volume selection of his essays edited and sometimes revised by du Pont de Nemours. In old age he suffered from incessant attacks of gout, and he died at the age of eighty at Versailles in 1774.

Significance

For historians of economic theory, François Quesnay ranks as one of the greatest economists of all time. He was the acknowledged leader and founder of the Physiocrat school, which usually is said to have produced the first comprehensive approach to economics. Quesnay’s work helped prepare the way for the classical economists, particularly Adam Smith, who frequently acknowledged his influence. As capitalism continued to grow and develop in the next centuries, numerous admirers of the free market and minimal governmental regulations have looked to Quesnay as almost a prophet. Socialists and proponents of activist governmental intervention, in contrast, typically view him as an apologist for the exploitation of the working classes by a wealthy elite.

Economists of the twenty-first century continue to debate the validity of Quesnay’s theories. Almost all economists reject his views about the economic “sterility” of manufacturing, commerce, and the service sector. His notions of laissez-faire economics, on the other hand, continue to attract many enthusiastic supporters. When these ideas have been tried, sometimes the results have been remarkably successful, while at other times the results have been almost disastrous. In the eighteenth century, Quesnay’s proposals were usually considered “liberal,” but in the twenty-first century, at least in the United States, they are classified as “conservative.”

Bibliography

Blaug, Mark. Great Economists Before Keynes: An Introduction to the Lives and Works of One Hundred Great Economists of the Past. Lyme, N.H.: Edward Elgar, 1997. One of the best sources for the reader wanting relatively short introductions to Quesnay and other major economists.

Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. The Origins of Physiocracy: Economic Revolution and Social Order in Eighteenth-Century France. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1976. A left-leaning but fair-minded account of the Physiocrats within the context of the Enlightenment, the problems of the Old Regime, and the nature of capitalism.

Groenewegen, Peter. Eighteenth-Century Economics: Turgot, Beccaria, and Smith and Their Contemporaries. New York: Routledge, 2002. A collection of essays by a scholar specializing in eighteenth century economic history. Among other topics, the essays discuss the economic theories of Quesnay, Turgot, Cesare Beccaria, and Adam Smith.

Higgs, Henry. The Physiocrats: Six Lectures on the French Economics of the Eighteenth Century. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1963. A good introduction to the thought of Quesnay and the other Physiocrats.

Kuczynski, Marguerite, and Ronald Meek, ed. Quesnay’s “Tableau économique,” with New Materials, Translations, and Notes. London: Macmillan, 1972. A translation of Quesnay’s major work, with helpful notes and explanations.

Landreth, Harry, and David Colander. History of Economic Thought. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. Includes a readable summary of Quesnay’s economic theory and his influence.

McCulloch, John. Treatises and Essays on Subjects Connected with Economical Policy, with Biographical Sketches of Quesnay, Adam Smith, and Ricardo. New York: Augustus Kelley, 1967. Originally published 1853, this work includes a useful biographical sketch of twelve pages.

Niehans, Jurg. A History of Economic Theory: Classic Contributions, 1720-1980. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Provides a good historical introduction into the influences on Quesnay as well as his theories and their influence during his own age and later.

Vaggi, Gianni. Economics of François Quesnay. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1987. The only substantial book devoted to Quesnay’s economic theories.