the economic policies of the king and formed the basis
for Quesnay’s system of natural economic law. The
Tableauused the example of an agricultural society to
trace the flow of production within an economy. It also
provided a precise chart with which to study the econ-
omy. The followers of Quesnay came to be known as
the économistes or physiocrats. Quesnay’s ideas ran
counter to the prevailing economic theories of the day,
which were based on mercantilism and which held
that a nation’s wealth was based on its accumulation of
gold and silver. However, the physiocrats quickly
became the dominant economic force within the
French court, and Quesnay became the king’s main
economic advisor.
The French physician advocated that a nation’s
political economy should be developed as a hierarchy
with natural production at its apex. He maintained
that agriculture formed the main source of wealth for a
nation. Agriculture was different than commerce or
industry in that, Quesnay asserted, farming produced
products and wealth while manufacturing merely
transformed or distributed goods. As such, merchants
and industry were neutral factors in a nation’s econ-
omy and only exchanged wealth from one source to
another. Hence, farmers were producers; industrial
workers were engaged “sterile” pursuits. Quesnay
named his system the ordre naturel(natural order).
A central component of Quesnay’s economic system
was the taxation of land as the sole means for revenue
for a government. He believed that taxes on wealth or
income inhibited economic performance. The phys-
iocrats were also among the first to advocate free and
open trade among nations. Their belief in laissez-faire
had a major impact on Adam Smith: The Scottish
economist met with Quesnay in 1764 and developed
an intense fondness for the French physician.
Quesnay and his system did help inspire Smith’s
development of the rules of free-market capitalism, but
it had limited actual practical value. By contending
that laborers were engaged in a sterile occupation and
thereby incapable of the production of wealth, Ques-
nay failed to account for the vast potential of industry
to create wealth. Nonetheless, Quesnay’s theories con-
tinued to exert an influence on economic thought and
to underscore the political importance that Western
European nations continue to place on agriculture.Further Reading
Vaggi, G. The Economics of François Quesnay.Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press, 1987.250 Quesnay, François