ABSTRACT
Voltaire's literary violence strikingly contrasts with the placidity of Quesnay. This school of thought was a sober attempt at economic science; it represents the genesis of modern economics. The basic query of the physiocrats concerning the economic world was, what is the source of economic productivity? Physiocratic theory inaugurated a concept of searching for the economic parasite who does not produce but rather exploits the production of others. The argument between the physiocrats and the social order of the eighteenth century was manifested in the issue of economic liberty. Du Pont was unqualified in his assertion of this economic emancipation. The physiocratic demand for economic liberty followed the logic of associating the ideal of freedom with the defense of absolutism. But instead of there being an order of economic liberty built into economic development, one finds in modern history an expansion of organizational coercion. The radicalism of their demand for economic liberty parallelled Voltaire's proposal for intellectual freedom.
