ABSTRACT
The word 'economy' lies at the crossroads between the history of economic thought and of natural and mathematical sciences, because of the great transition in the term's meaning, as well as its usage, in the latter half of the eighteenth century in France. This chapter describes how the old meanings of 'economy' are connected to the realm of natural and mathematical sciences in the French context. It examines how that 'economy' intervened in the intellectual activities conducted in the Royal Academy of Science in Paris, one of the most eminent learned societies for natural and mathematical sciences at that time. The 'economy' as a 'mode of administration' remained firmly linked to jurisprudence and politics in the age of the Encyclopedia, but not so visibly linked to natural or mathematical sciences. The end-point of the modern transition of the term 'economy' is suggested by Jean-Claude Perrot citing the article on 'political economy’ in Jacques Penuche’s Vocabularies des Terms de Commerce etc.
