Karl Marx on physiocracy

Abstract

The paper discusses Marx's views on physiocracy. In his attempt to ‘excavate’ the roots of ‘classical’ political economy, Marx saw that the physiocrats had anticipated the analytical structure of the classical theory of value and distribution from Adam Smith to Ricardo, centred around the concept of surplus product. Marx also discerned, or so he thought, elements of a material-based and a labour-based explanation of value in the physiocrats. Quesney's Ebleau economique is shown to be of importnace not only for Marx's theory of reproduction but also for his determination of the general rate of profit and prices of production.