ABSTRACT
In treating separately the doctrine of the Physiocrats, we do not lose sight of the fact that it is only a political-economical expression of the thought-form and thought-content designated by the general term 'Enlightenment.' The physiocratic doctrine was propagated in the form of a system, the form in which it originated in the brain of its creator, Quesnay; it found disciples who united to form a school, without extending essentially or even giving greater profundity to the ideas of their master; and it disappeared from public discussion, when the French Revolution laid its ban upon the mind of Europe. Quesnay's theory is the 'enlightened' justification of political absolutism. That feature of it which forms a new departure in European thought, and is, therefore, presumably original, is the character of the justification, the fact that it is based on economic considerations. Quesnay's theory became the starting-point of the science generally known to-day as National or Political Economy.
