ABSTRACT
FranCois Quesnay’s Tableau Economique, published in 1758, is unique in its emphasis on the circulation of wealth through the body of the economy. In the words of the Marquis de Mirabeau: “There are three marvellous inventions in the world, writing, money and the Tableau Economique”. The Looking-Glass debt to Adam Smith is obvious from Quesnay’s insistence on the Law of Competition. Quesnay’s condemnation of “sterile saving, which would deduct from circulation and distribution a portion of their revenues or gains”, follows logically from the Law of Circulation. But it marks a clean break with Classical Orthodoxy. It is a repudiation of Adam Smith’s view that “capitals are increased by parsimony, and diminished by prodigality and misconduct. It marks the establishment of a multi-gear view of the economy in the mainstream of economic thought. Commenting on the progress of economic theory, Blanqui observes that “after Quesnay came Turgot; after Turgot, Adam Smith; science henceforth marches with giant steps”.
