Fisiocracia francois quesnay biography

They wanted the government of Louis XV, who ruled France from to , to deregulate and reduce taxes on French agriculture so that poor France could emulate wealthier Britain, which had a relatively laissez-faire policy. Quesnay himself did not publish until the age of sixty. His first work appeared only as encyclopedia articles in and Quesnay believed that only the agricultural sector could produce a surplus that could then be used to produce more the next year—and therefore help growth.

Industry and manufacturing, thought Quesnay, were sterile. Interestingly, though, he did not reach this conclusion by consulting his table. Instead, Quesnay constructed the table to fit his belief. Indeed, he had to make his table inconsistent in order to fit his assumption that industry provided no surplus.

François quesnay education

The French government had protected French manufacturers from foreign competition , thus raising the cost of machinery for farmers, and had also sold to wealthy citizens the power to tax farmers. These citizens had then used this power to the limit. These reforms were much more sensible than his theorizing about the sterility of industry.

That Quesnay had such a seminal influence on economics is all the more surprising in light of the fact that he served under Louis XV in Versailles not as an economist, but as a medical doctor.