The Physiocrats and the World of the Enlightenment [Hardcover]

Offers a framework for understanding physiocratic theory and the development of modern economics.Physiocracy, an eighteenth-century French economic theory widely considered a forerunner of modern economics, argued that wealth derived exclusively from agriculture. The Physiocrats and the World of the Enlightenment places the Physiocrats in context by inscribing economic thought within broader Enlightenment trends. Liana Vardi discusses three theorists  Francois Quesnay; Victor Riquetti, marquis de Mirabeau; and Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours  and shows how their writing on economics depended on their epistemology, their politics, and approach to the arts. This work offers a framework for understanding physiocratic theory and its complicated relation to modern economics.Physiocracy, an eighteenth-century French economic theory widely considered a forerunner of modern economics, argued that wealth derived exclusively from agriculture. The Physiocrats and the World of the Enlightenment places the Physiocrats in context by inscribing economic thought within broader Enlightenment trends. Liana Vardi discusses three theorists  Francois Quesnay; Victor Riquetti, marquis de Mirabeau; and Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours  and shows how their writing on economics depended on their epistemology, their politics, and approach to the arts. This work offers a framework for understanding physiocratic theory and its complicated relation to modern economics.The Physiocrats believed that wealth came exclusively from the land, that nature was fecund and man could harness its reproductive forces. Capital investments in agriculture and hard work would create profits that circulated to other sectors and supported all social institutions. Physiocracy, which originated in late eighteenth-century France, is therefore widely considered a forerunner of modern economic theory. The Physiocrats and the World of the Enlightenment places the Physiocrats in context by inscribing economic theorlÃ~