ABSTRACT
This chapter examines François Quesnay’s “philosophie économique” in its dual aspect, as a moral and political science, and as a science of the wealth of a large agricultural and commercial state. In the first aspect, Quesnay’s “philosophie économique” is based on a sensationist theory of knowledge inspired by the writings of Locke and Condillac, and partly by Malebranche, which makes it possible to articulate three fundamental notions: the self-interested behaviour of individuals, the existence of a natural order harmonising their interests and the necessity of “economic government”. In its second aspect, “philosophie économique” endeavours to show that the most advantageous economic government of a large state does not lie primarily in the promotion of trade and manufactures but in the promotion of agriculture open to foreign trade, and in the maintenance of two circulations necessary for the revival of wealth: that of revenue and that of advances. This is illustrated by the different versions of the Tableau Économique. This science of wealth leads to a theory of taxation that consists in levying taxes, not on the holders of advances but on the recipients of the only available revenue: the “produit net”.
