François Quesnay (1694 –1774)

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 François Quesnay (1694 –1774)

• The founder, leader of physiocracy was Dr.

François Quesnay.
• Quesnay served as the consulting physician
to King Louis XV at Versailles.
• Late in life he developed an interest in
economics, publishing his first book on the
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subject in his 60s.
 François Quesnay (1694 –1774)

• Quesnay’s system of political economy was summed up in

Tableau Économique (1758),
• This diagrammed the relationship between the different
economic classes and sectors of society and the flow of
payments between them.
• In his Tableau Quesnay developed the notion of economic
equilibrium, a concept frequently used as a point of
departure for subsequent economic analysis.
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 François Quesnay (1694 –1774)

• He was the originator of the term laissez-faire/laissez-passer

• Quesnay believed, in opposition to the then-dominant French
mercantilists (Colbert), that high taxes, high internal tolls, and
high barriers to imported goods were the cause of the grinding
French poverty he saw around him.
• Quesnay wanted Louis XV, the king from 1715 to 1774, to
deregulate trade and to slash taxes so that France could start to
emulate wealthier Britain.

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 François Quesnay (1694 –1774)

• The foundation of the Physiocrats’ economic theories was

first described in François Quesnay's Tableau Économique.
• The model Quesnay created consisted of three economic
movers:
1. The Proprietary class consisted of only landowners.
2. The Productive class consisted of all agricultural
laborers.
3. The Sterile class is made up of artisans and merchants.
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Tubule Économique (Original)