Table Of ContentTHE ECONOMICS OF FRAN<;OIS QUESNA Y
STUDIES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
General Editor: John Eatwell, Trinity College, Cambridge
tAmit Bhaduri
THE ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF BACKWARD
AGRICULTURE
*Pascal Bride!
CAMBRIDGE MONETARY THOUGHT
tMichael Ellman
COLLECTIVISATION, CONVERGENCE AND CAPITALISM
tC. A. Gregory
GIFTS AND COMMODITIES
tMurray Milgate
CAPITAL AND EMPLOYMENT
*Carlo Panico
INTEREST AND PROFIT IN THE THEORIES OF VALUE
AND DISTRIBUTION
*Gianni Vaggi
THE ECONOMICS OF FRANC,::OIS QUESNAY
tPublished by Academic Press
*Published by Macmillan
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Standing Order Service, Macmillan Distribution Ltd,
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG212XS, England.
The Economics of
Quesnay
Fran~ois
Gianni Vaggi
Associate Professor of History of Economic Thought
University of Pavia
M
MACMILLAN
PRESS
© Giovanni Vaggi 1987
Foreword© John Eatwell 1987
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
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civil claims for damages.
First published 1987
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Vaggi, Gianni
The economics of Fran~ois Quesnay.
1. Quesnay, Fran~ois 2. Economics
I. Title
330.15'2 HB105.Q5
ISBN 978-1-349-09098-3 ISBN 978-1-349-09096-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-09096-9
In memory of Maurice Herbert Dobb, 1900--76
Contents
Foreword by John Eatwell xi
Preface XV
1 A Reinterpretation of Physiocracy 1
A INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Why re-examine physiocratic economics?
The problem of value 1
1.2 The tradition 5
1.3 The role of value 8
(a) Prices and markets 9
(b) The theory of value and the production and
distribution of wealth 10
(c) The physiocrats' contribution to political
economy 12
1.4 Outline of the work 14
B QUESNAY'S METHODOLOGY AND THE TABLEAU
ECONOMJQUE
1.5 The object of physiocratic analysis: the prosperity
of France 16
1.6 The method: abstraction and simplification 17
1.7 The answer: exclusive productivity of agriculture 20
1.8 The literary genre used by Quesnay 23
1.9 The different Tableaux 25
1.10 The 'state of bliss' in the Tableau Economique 28
1.11 The exclusive productivity of agriculture: a
necessary complement to the Tableau 31
2 Value and Wealth 34
2.1 'Telle est Ia valeur venale tel est le revenue' 34
2.2 The material conditions of production and the
marketability of the products of land 38
2.3 First-hand markets and the measurement of
wealth 40
vii
viii Contents
2.4 The sterility of trade 42
2.5 The heterogeneity of input and output in
agriculture 46
2.6 The composition of the avances primitives 48
2.7 The relationship between industry and agriculture 49
2.8 Changes in relative prices 53
3 The Theory of Prices in Physiocracy 58
A THE LAWS OF THE MARKET AND THE CURRENT PRICE 58
3.1 Value in use and value in exchange 58
3.2 The systematic forces of a market exchange
economy 61
3.3 The distinction between current and retail price 62
3.4 Conflicts in the circulation of commodities 66
3.5 Competition as the panacea 70
3.6 Foreign trade and the stability of prices 73
B THE FUNDAMENTAL PRICE OF COMMODITIES 76
3.7 A benchmark for the current price 76
3.8 The 'physical costs' theory of prices 77
3.9 The determination of the fundamental price 80
3.10 Rent as a cost and as a revenue 87
3.11 The originality of Quesnay's theory of prices and
its legacies to Smith 88
4 Capital, Competition and the Origin of Surplus 94
4.1 Traditional interpretations 94
4.2 The opposition to the doctrine of the exclusive
productivity of agriculture 97
4.3 The productiveness of capitalistic agriculture 98
4.4 The different role of competition in agriculture
and in manufacturing 101
4.5 The effective demand for the products of land 104
4.6 Aggregate demand in a reproduction economy 106
4.7 Laissez-faire or neo-Mercantilism? 109
4.8 Competition among producers 114
4.9 Some weaknesses in the physiocratic theory of the
origin of surplus 116
Contents IX
5 The Theory of Distribution 121
A FARMERS' PROFITS ARE A SHARE OF THE NET PRODUCT 121
5.1 The appropriation of surplus: rent, taille and
profits 121
5.2 Profit upon alienation 126
5.3 The bon prix and the incentive to investment 129
5.4 The expenditure of surplus; farmers and
investments 130
5.5 The process of development 134
B PROFITS AS A TEMPORARY SHARE OF THE SURPLUS 137
5.6 Competition among farmers 137
5.7 Wealthy cultivators and noble proprietors: the
seeds of revolution? 140
5.8 The physiocrats and the need to reassure the
dominant classes 142
5.9 The appropriate shares of profit and rent; with a
dialogue between Mirabeau and Quesnay 145
5.10 Short and long run and the concept of surplus 150
5.11 Profits between comparative statics and dynamics 152
Appendix A: Two Tableaux 155
Appendix B: Profits and the lengthening of baux 161
6 Physiocracy and the Origin of Political Economy 165
6.1 New elements in physiocratic economics 165
6.2 The economic functions of classes and the analysis
of the labour process 169
6.3 Market competition and the origin of surplus 171
6.4 The theory of distribution 174
6.5 The contrasting interests of classes 179
(a) The price of corn and the standard of living of
people 178
(b) Farmers versus landlords 179
6.6 The scarcity of land and the attempt to solve the
physiocratic contradictions 182
6.7 Physiocracy and the modification of French
society 187
X Contents
6.8 Quesnay's 'flaws' and his contribution to classical
economics 188
Notes and References 193
Bibliography 221
Index 230
