Wealth and Power: Quesnay's Political Economy of the “Agricultural Kingdom”

Abstract

The Physiocrats “New Science” of Political Economy is often represented as unrelated to the pursuit of national power. A recent study (Fourquet 1989), which rests on the approaches of Fernand Braudel (1979) and Immanuel Wallerstein (1980), has radicalized the thesis already propounded by Edmond Silberner (1939) who claimed that Quesnay was profoundly ignorant of military matters and failed to understand the power struggles being played out on the seas and in the colonies. Did not Quesnay propose turning back to an agricultural economy, banishing industry, trade, and the navy—in short, all the active forces thanks to which Great Britain had snatched domination of the world economy from Holland and thanks to which she would prevent France from obtaining it?Yet this thesis is weak. It must be remembered that Quesnay's first economic writings date from 1756–57, that is to say a period when confrontation between France and England was at a peak, with the start of the Seven Years' War. How could an author who claims to de ne the economic government ofan agricultural nation ignore the military problems which were so crucial in this period? Even if he wanted to, how could he succeed in doing so once he came to deal with taxes and the highly sensitive question of finance? How could he make himself understood by his contemporaries with a political theory that set aside all the burning issues of the day? How could he find an audience among those developing the science of commerce who always accorded great importance to the pursuit of power?Under scrutiny the traditional thesis appears inaccurate. After recalling the writings of some of his contemporaries, whom Quesnay knew and read (section 1), I shall show that articles drafted between 1756 and 1757, like published or unpublished works which Mirabeau and Quesnay elaborated between 1757 and 1760, give significant room to the nation's military power, particularly when the economic government is in question (section 2). From the years 1763–64 the idea of a natural order does not lead Quesnay to neglect the pursuit of power (section 3). These links between power and wealth in the work of the founder of Physiocracy will lead finally to some remarks on political economy as a form of rationalization of politics.