The Physiocrats and the Birth of Economic Science

In the 1750s and 1760s a group of French reformers called the physiocrats tried to make economics a science. Their leader, François Quesnay, physician to King Louis XV, drew the Tableau économique (1758), a diagram showing how wealth circulates among farmers, landowners and artisans. The physiocrats argued that only agriculture produces a true surplus, so governments should remove obstacles to farming and trade, including internal tolls, guild monopolies and controls on grain prices.

The phrase 'laissez faire, laissez passer', let things be made, let goods pass, became linked with their circle. Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot tried to apply these ideas as France's finance minister from 1774, freeing the grain trade and abolishing guilds and forced road labor in 1776. Rising bread prices, riots and opposition from privileged groups led to his dismissal that year. The episode showed both the appeal of Enlightenment economics and the political difficulty of reforming a society built on privilege.