NationMaster - Encyclopedia: François Quesnay

François Quesnay (June 4, 1694 - December 16, 1774) was a French economist of the Physiocratic school. He also practiced surgery. June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (156th in leap years), with 210 days remaining. ... Events February 6 - The colony Quilombo dos Palmares is destroyed. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events January 21 - Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid I. May 10 - Louis XVI becomes King of France. ... The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ... An economist is someone who studies Economics. ... The Physiocrats were a group of thinkers who believed in an economic theory which considered that the wealth of nations was derived solely from agriculture. ... Surgery Surgery (from the Greek cheirourgia - lit. ...

Life

Quesnay was born at Merey, in today's Eure département, near Paris, the son of an advocate and small landed proprietor. Apprenticed at the age of sixteen to a surgeon, he soon went to Paris, studied medicine and surgery there, and, having qualified as a master-surgeon, settled down to practice at Mantes. In 1737 he was appointed perpetual secretary of the academy of surgery founded by François la Peyronie, and became surgeon in ordinary to the king. In 1744 he graduated as a doctor of medicine; he became physician in ordinary to the king, and afterwards his first consulting physician, and was installed in the Palace of Versailles. His apartments were on the entresol, whence the Réunions de l'entresol received their name. Louis XV esteemed Quesnay much, and used to call him his thinker; when he ennobled him he gave him for arms three flowers of the pansy (pensée in French, also meaning thought), with the motto Propter excogitalionem mentis. Eure is a département in the north of France named after the Eure River. ... The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and are now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas régions. ... Landed property or landed estates is a real estate term that usually refers to a property that generates income for the owner without himself having to do the actual work at the estate. ... Mantes-la-Jolie or Mantes or Mantes-sur-Seine is a commune of northern France, the capital of an arrondissement (sous-préfecture) and the third largest town in the département of Yvelines on the left bank of the Seine, some 30 miles north west of Paris. ... Events 12 February - The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated. ... Events The third French and Indian War, known as King Georges War, breaks out at Port Royal, Nova Scotia Ongoing events War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Births May 19 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen-Consort of King George III of Great Britain July 17 -Elbridge Gerry, American... Versailles: Louis Le Vau opened up the interior court to create the expansive entrance cour dhonneur, later copied all over Europe The Château de Versailles — often called the Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles — is a royal château, outside the gates of which the village of Versailles, France, has... Louis XV King of France and Navarre Louis XV (February 15, 1710 - May 10, 1774), called the Well-Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé), was king of France from 1715 to 1774. ... Binomial name Viola tricolor hortensis Viola * wittrockiana The Pansy or Pansy Violet is a cultivated garden flower. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

He now devoted himself principally to economic studies, taking no part in the court intrigues which were perpetually going on around him. About the year 1750 he became acquainted with Jean C. M. V. de Gournay (1712-1759), who was also an earnest inquirer in the economic field; and round these two distinguished men was gradually formed the philosophic sect of the Économistes, or, as for distinction's sake they were afterwards called, the Physiocrates. The most remarkable men in this group of disciples were the elder Mirabeau (author of L'Ami des hommes, 1756-60, and Philosophie rurale, 1763), Nicolas Baudeau (Introduction a la philosophie économique, 1771), G. F. Le Trosne (De l'ordre social, 1777), André Morellet (best known by his controversy with Galiani on the freedom of the corn trade), Mercier Larivière and Dupont de Nemours. Adam Smith, during his stay on the continent with the young Duke of Buccleuch in 1764-1766, spent some time in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Quesnay and some of his followers; he paid a high tribute to their scientific services in his Wealth of Nations. Events March 2 - Small earthquake in London April 4 - Small earthquake in Warrington, England August 23 - Small earthquake in Spalding, England September 30 - Small earthquake in Northampton, England November 16 – Westminster Bridge officially opened Jonas Hanway is the first Englishman to use an umbrella James Gray reveals her sex to... Portrait of Mirabeau Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, (often referred to simply as Mirabeau) ( March 9, 1749 - April 2, 1791) was a French writer, popular orator and statesman. ... André Morellet ( March 7, 1727 - January 12, 1819) was a French economist and writer. ... Ferdinando Galiani (December 2, 1728 - October 30, 1787) was an Italian economist. ... Adam Smith Adam Smith (June 5, 1723 – July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ... Events January 19 - John Wilkes is expelled from the House of Commons for seditious libel February 15 - The American city of St. ... Events January 1 - Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism. ... An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of Adam Smith, published in 1776. ...

Quesnay died on December 16, 1774, having lived long enough to see his great pupil, Turgot, in office as minister of finance. He had married in 1718, and had a son and a daughter; his grandson by the former was a member of the first Legislative Assembly. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, often referred to as Turgot ( May 10, 1727– March 18, 1781), was a French statesman and economist. ... This page is a list of French finance ministers. ... Events May 15 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the worlds first machine gun. ... During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. ...

Works

In 1758 he published Tableau économique, which provided the foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats. This was perhaps the first work to attempt to describe the workings of the economy in an analytical way, and as such can be viewed as one of the first important contributions to economic thought. Events June 12 - French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg - James Wolfes attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia commences. ...

The publications in which Quesnay expounded his system were the following: two articles, on "Fermiers" and on "Grains", in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert (1756, 1757); a discourse on the law of nature in the Physiocratie of Dupont de Nemours (1768); Maximes générales de gouvernement economique d'un royaume agricole (1758), and the simultaneously published Tableau économique avec son explication, ou extrait des économies royales de Sully (with the celebrated motto, Pauvres paysans, pauvre royaume; pauvre royaume, pauvre roi); Dialogue sur le commerce et les travaux des artisans; and other minor pieces. Fig. ... Denis Diderot Denis Diderot ( October 5, 1713 - July 31, 1784) was a French writer and philosopher. ... Jean le Rond dAlembert, pastel by Maurice Quentin de la Tour Jean Le Rond dAlembert ( November 16, 1717 – October 29, 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist and philosopher. ... Events March 17 - St. ... Events March 14 - On-board the HMS Monarch, Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty. ... Events January 9 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus (London) May 10 - John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for the North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London Secretary of State for colonies appointed in Britain Massachusetts Assembly dissolved for refusing to... Events June 12 - French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg - James Wolfes attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia commences. ... Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully (December 13, 1560 - December 22, 1641) was the doughty soldier, French minister, staunch Protestant and faithful right-hand man who enabled Henry IV of France to accomplish so much. ...

The Tableau économique, though on account of its dryness and abstract form it met with little general favor, may be considered the principal manifesto of the school. It was regarded by the followers of Quesnay as entitled to a place amongst the foremost products of human wisdom, and is named by the elder Mirabeau, in a passage quoted by Adam Smith, as one of the three great inventions which have contributed most to the stability of political societies, the other two being those of writing and of money. Its object was to exhibit by means of certain formulas the way in which the products of agriculture, which is the only source of wealth, would in a state of perfect liberty be distributed among the several classes of the community (namely, the productive classes of the proprietors and cultivators of land, and the unproductive class composed of manufacturers and merchants), and to represent by other formulas the modes of distribution which take place under systems of Governmental restraint and regulation, with the evil results arising to the whole society from different degrees of such violations of the natural order. It follows from Quesnay's theoretic views that the one thing deserving the solicitude of the practical economist and the statesman is the increase of the net product; and he infers also what Smith afterwards affirmed, on not quite the same ground, that the interest of the landowner is strictly and indissolubly connected with the general interest of the society. A small edition de luxe of this work, with other pieces, was printed in 1758 in the Palace of Versailles under the king's immediate supervision, some of the sheets, it is said, having been pulled by the royal hand. Already in 1767 the book had disappeared from circulation, and no copy of it is now procurable; but, the substance of it has been preserved in the Ami des hommes of Mirabeau, and the Physiocratie of Dupont de Nemours. Farming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). ... Events June 12 - French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg - James Wolfes attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia commences. ... Events The Burmese army captures the Thai capital of Ayutthaya, and destroys the city. ...

His economic writings are collected in the 2nd vol. of the Principaux économistes, published by Guillaumin, Paris, with preface and notes by Eugène Daire; also his OEuvres économiques et philosophiques were collected with an introduction and note by Aug. Oncken (Frankfort, 1888); a facsimile reprint of the Tableau économique, from the original MS., was published by the British Economic Association (London, 1895). His other writings were the article "Évidence" in the Encyclopédie, and Recherches sur l'évidence des vérites geometriques, with a Projet de nouveaux éléments de géometrie, 1773. Quesnay's Eloge was pronounced in the Academy of Sciences by Grandjean de Fouchy (see the Recueil of that Academy, 1774, p. 134). See also F.J. Marmontel, Mémoires; Mémoires de Mme. du Hausset; H. Higgs, The Physiocrats (London, 1897). The French Academy of Sciences (Académie des sciences) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. ...

The influence of Chinese ideas and concepts on Quesnay should not be forgotten: in his lifetime he was known as the French Confucius. When used as an adjective, Chinese refers to anything that originates from China, , Chinese cuisine. ... Confucius (traditionally September 8? 551 BCE– 479 BCE) was a famous sage and social philosopher of China whose teachings deeply influenced East Asia during twenty centuries. ...

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Works

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Life