Francois Quesnay

François Quesnay was a French economist and physician who is considered as one of the founders of the Physiocratic school of thought. He was also the intellectual leader of the group of economists known as the Économistes or the Physiocrates. He is best known for his work Tableau économique (Economic Table), which was published in 1758 and provided the first systematic analysis of the production and distribution of wealth in a society. He also developed the concept of laissez-faire, which advocated for minimal government intervention in the economy and free trade. Quesnay was born on June 4, 1694, in Méré, near Versailles, France. He was the son of an advocate and small landowner. He received no formal education as a child, but learned to read and write from a gardener. He was interested in mathematics and natural sciences, and taught himself Latin and Greek. He also studied medicine and surgery in Paris, and became a master surgeon in 1718. He married Marianne Woodsen that same year, and had two children: Jeanne and François. Quesnay practiced medicine in Mantes for several years, and gained a reputation as a skillful surgeon and a successful practitioner. He also wrote several medical treatises on topics such as blood circulation, fever, smallpox, and hygiene. In 1737, he was appointed as the perpetual secretary of the Academy of Surgery, founded by François Gigot de la Peyronie. He became the surgeon in ordinary to King Louis XV in 1744, and later his first consulting physician. He was installed in the Palace of Versailles, where he had his apartments on the entresol (a low story between two main stories of a building). He was highly esteemed by the king, who called him his thinker. He was also ennobled by the king in 1752, and given a coat of arms with three pansies (derived from pensée, meaning thought in French) and the motto Propter cogitationem mentis (Because of the thought of the mind). Quesnay developed an interest in economics later in his life, after meeting Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay, an intendant of commerce and a fellow advocate of free trade. He published his first book on economics, Essai physique sur l'oeconomie animale (Physical Essay on Animal Economy), in 1736, which applied his physiological knowledge to explain the functioning of human society. He also wrote several articles for the Encyclopédie edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, such as "Fermiers" (Farmers), "Grains" (Grains), and "Hommes" (Men). His most influential work, however, was the Tableau économique, which he first presented to the king in 1758. It was a diagram that showed the flow of income and expenditure among three classes of society: the productive class (farmers), the proprietary class (landowners), and the sterile class (artisans and merchants). He argued that agriculture was the only source of wealth creation, and that all other activities were either unproductive or parasitic. He also advocated for a single tax on land rent, which he believed would maximize the net product (the surplus after deducting costs) and stimulate economic growth. He also opposed mercantilism, which favored exports over imports and accumulation of gold over circulation of money. He supported free trade, both domestically and internationally, and argued that the government should only provide public goods such as justice, security, and infrastructure, and refrain from interfering with the natural order of the economy. Quesnay's ideas influenced a group of economists who called themselves the Physiocrats, or the lovers of nature. They included prominent figures such as Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, Nicolas Baudeau, Guillaume-François Le Trosne, André Morellet, Pierre-Paul Lemercier de la Rivière, and Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours. They published journals such as Ephémérides du citoyen and Journal de l'agriculture, du commerce et des finances, where they propagated Quesnay's doctrines and criticized the prevailing economic policies of the time. They also attracted the attention of foreign economists, such as Adam Smith, who visited Quesnay in Paris in 1766 and praised his scientific contributions in his book The Wealth of Nations (1776). Quesnay died on December 16, 1774, in Versailles, at the age of 80. He had lived long enough to see his great pupil, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, become the minister of finance under Louis XVI in 1774. Turgot attempted to implement some of the Physiocratic reforms, such as abolishing the corvée (a form of unpaid labor imposed on peasants), reducing taxes on the poor, and liberalizing the grain trade. However, he faced strong opposition from the nobility, the clergy, and the parlements (courts of justice), and was dismissed in 1776. Quesnay's ideas also influenced the French Revolution of 1789, which aimed to overthrow the feudal system and establish a constitutional monarchy based on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.