ABSTRACT
The systematic theories of economic growth were developed in eighteenth century France and England, well before what has come to be known as the industrial revolution. A further stimulus to research on the problem of economic development was provided by statistical work on national income which showed the extent of the gap between rich and poor countries. Prior to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations the most systematic theory of economic growth was that of Quesnay, the leading economist amongst the Physiocrats, the school which dominated French economics in the half of the eighteenth century. Central to Francois Quesnay’s theory of growth was his Tableau Economique. To raise the French growth rate it was necessary to reduce the taxation of agricultural produce, replacing it with taxes on rents, to reduce expenditure on manufactured goods, or to raise agricultural productivity. The Malthusian theory of population and the Ricardian theory of rent were the main components of David Ricardo’s theory of growth.
