François Quesnay is one of the most famous French economists.

His name appears in every textbook on economics and the history of economic thought. It is stated that he created the "Tableau Économique" to schematically represent the economy, that he was the leader of the Physiocratic school, and that he was mistaken in believing that only land is productive, and finally, that Adam Smith came to set the record straight. This, more or less, is how textbooks tend to summarize François Quesnay.

Reducing him to this is a shame, because Quesnay was also the first economist to attempt to base the defense of economic freedom on scientific principles. He was one of the most listened-to and influential economists of his time. Moreover, he founded Physiocracy, a much richer doctrine than the simplistic idea that only nature produces wealth, a notion that is often misrepresented.

We'll discuss Physiocracy in more detail over the next three chapters. First, let's take a closer look at François Quesnay himself.

Born in 1694 in Méré to a peasant family that couldn't teach Quesnay to read. He was trained by a local man and eventually went on to study at the College of Surgery and then the Faculty of Medicine. At the age of 24, he became a surgeon in Mantes.

He gained fame in 1730, at age 36, for opposing the common practice of bloodletting, which he believed was based on flawed theories and prejudices. He also dared to challenge the system of guilds, which dictated that only surgeons could perform operations and only doctors could prescribe medication. This often forced the poor to pay twice and bring in two people, a situation Quesnay found revolting.

In 1740, he became secretary of the Academy of Surgery. In 1748, at age 54, he became the personal physician to Madame de Pompadour and moved to Versailles.

He was very close to Madame de Pompadour. Quesnay even said, at the time when the favorite's disgrace was announced, that he would not want to remain a doctor at Versailles without her: "I was attached to Madame de Pompadour in her prosperity; I will be so in her disgrace".

Then he published several medical books: Treatise on Suppuration (1749), Treatise on Gangrene (1749), and Treatise on Continuous Fevers (1753), all of which were reprinted several times during his lifetime.

At the age of 60, having been introduced to the economic debates fashionable at the time, he began writing about economics. In 1755, he wrote the articles "Farmers" and "Grain" for the Encyclopédie.

They were published in 1757. That same year, he met the famous Mirabeau and managed to convert him to his economic ideas—the core of Physiocracy was born. Quesnay then created the Tableau Économique, which was printed on the royal presses, reportedly in the presence of the king himself at the Château de Versailles. From that point on, he regularly hosted economists and philosophers in his Versailles apartment, where they engaged in discussions freely. Quesnay also contributed to Mirabeau's Theory of Taxation, published in 1759.

Censorship soon struck. Mirabeau was imprisoned, and Quesnay was reprimanded. After that, Quesnay realized he couldn't publish openly and would need disciples to spread his ideas.

He quickly found them: Baudeau, Dupont de Nemours, Le Trosne, Mercier de la Rivière, and others. These were the men who would spread and popularize the thought of Quesnay. However, Quesnay, who needed disciples, was not entirely satisfied with the sectarian aspect of his group. Witness his letters to Mirabeau, in which he tells him:

Still, his disciples were deeply devoted and contributed greatly to Quesnay's popularity. Upon his death, Mirabeau gave his eulogy, saying, "We have lost our father, for we owed him everything". In truth, it was Quesnay who owed them everything, for without them, he would have remained stuck at Versailles, where his thinking, though it had much to seduce or worry, interested few.

Thanks to the work of his collaborators, his ideas found a platform: first through newspapers such as the Journal of Agriculture and the Ephémérides du Citoyen.

Then through books, not only those of his disciples but also an important anthology published in 1768 by Dupont de Nemours, titled Physiocracy.

This book gathered Quesnay's main contributions. It laid out the economic ideal of the Physiocrats' leader: a model of agricultural economy where the law guarantees everyone the right to own property and the freedom to trade.