François Quesnay, Oeuvres économiques complètes et autres textes

To its impressive list of editions of major eighteenth-century texts (see appendix below), the Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques in Paris has most recently added the Oeuvres économiques complètes of François Quesnay. This two volume compendium, edited by Christine Théré, Loïc Charles and Jean-Claude Perrot, represents a thorough-going revision and expansion of the 1958 INED edition published by Alfred Sauvy and Jacqueline Hecht.

Quesnay, one of thirteen children of a modest farm family in the Beauce, was eleven years old before he was taught to read, by means of a popular book, Agriculture et maison rustique of doctors Charles Etienne and Jean Liébaut. Quesnay quickly plunged into a lifetime of learning, becoming first a surgeon, specializing in obstetrics and operations, then a champion of surgery in its battles with the medical establishment, and eventually qualifying as a doctor himself, treating a long line of eminent personnages before emerging as the personal physician of the duc de Villeroy and eventually of madame de Pompadour, in whose service he frequently attended to the health of the King, who granted him his titres de noblesse in 1752.

The personal relationship Quesnay enjoyed with Louis XV, although of a different tenor from that of Diderot and Catherine II or Voltaire’s rapport with Fredrick of Prussia, offers a similarly fascinating spectacle of philosophy conversing with kingship, of those great Enlightenment figures who found themselves in a position to “speak truth to power.” However for Quesnay, in J. Hecht’s words, “l’idée que le souverain avait le pouvoir de lui faire couper la tete le troublait quelquefois” (2:1363).

But the crowning accomplishments of his career went beyond the field of medicine. His friendships with Buffon, D’Alembert and Diderot quickly led them to enlist him in the great enterprise of the Encyclopédie, to which were destined the articles “Evidence,” “Fermiers,” “Impôts” and “Grains.” His most fruitful collaboration was with the marquis de Mirabeau, resulting in the formation of the Physiocratic movement and the publication of a number of seminal works on economics, including his famous “Tableau oeconomique avec ses explications” (1760), and his Philosophie rurale ou économie générale et politique de l’agriculture, réduite à l’ordre immuable des loix physiques et morales, qui assurent la prospérité des Empires (1760). Amidst the factional battles of the Enlightenment, Quesnay, apparently a devout Catholic, managed to lead the Physiocratic “sect” while maintaining working relations with both the court and the Encylopédistes (one exception to this entente cordiale being Melchior Grimm, who in the Correspondance Littéraire habitually bombarded those he referred to as “fretins économiques” with sarcasm, especially concerning their arguments for freedom of the grain trade).

The first, two-volume edition of Quesnay’s economic writings, the work of Alfred Sauvy and Jacqueline Hecht, was published in 1958 by INED. The new edition, under the auspices of Christine Théré, Loïc Charles and Jean-Claude Perrot, « s’appuie notamment sur les recherches menées depuis un demi-siècle et prend en compte les critères actuels d’édition scientifique de textes des Lumières.”

The editors have indeed met those criteria, producing the definitive source for those interested in the economic thought of the Enlightenment, in these meticulously organized and precisely annotated presentations of Quesnay’s writings.

The organization of the edition represents the richness and complexity of Quesnay’s thought. The first volume is divided into four sections : « Textes philosophiques », including « Essai physique sur l’oeconomie animale, » « Evidence, »« Aspect de la psychologie » « Observations sur le droit naturel des hommes réunis en société » and « Le Droit naturel » (second edition). The originality of Quesnay’s thought is apparent in these essays, - - his use of medical knowledge to challenge the concept of human psychology as a purely natural phenomenon, the Providential context he postulates for physiological function, which in turn serves to buttress his analysis of society’s underlying economic and political laws.

The second section, entitled : « Textes économiques antérieurs au Tableau» , includes articles destined for the Encyclopédie, « Fermiers, Grains, Impôts, Hommes. » In the « Note sur le commerce des grains, » the editors provide a detailed description of the complex history of this essay, which they characterize as « un moment théorique important dans l’œuvre économique de Quesnay » (326). The last piece in this section, « Questions intéressantes sur la population, l’agriculture et le commerce, » originally appeared in Mirabeau’s publication, L’Ami des hommes.

The third section of volume one is devoted to Quesnay’s famous “Tableau économique, » the three versions he offered of this visual representation of the arithmetical economics, and his reflections on the nation as a “royaume agricole.”

The last group of texts, begins with chapter seven of La Philosophie rurale, followed by the “dossiers,” - - fragments of notes exchanged between Quesnay and Mirabeau in preparation for their collaboration on the work . These notes, precisely organized and annotated, merit the editors’ accolade as the “dialogue fascinant entre deux auteurs,” (from the Archives Nationales).
Volume two consists of “Textes polémiques,” pieces published in physiocratic reviews such as the Journal de l’Agriculture, du commerce et des finances, as well as the previously unpublished “Notes sur les exemptions de dixmes,” from 1764 to 1769. These article (some appearing pseudonymously) concerned a wide range of economic issues such as “Fabrication des bas de soye à la France,” Quesnay’s most instructive essays on China and Peru, and his “Remarques sur l’opinion de l’auteur de L’Esprit des Lois concernant les colonies.” The following section consists of 24 letters from Quesnay to such key figures as Dupont de Nemours, La Condamine and Mirabeau.

The remainder of the volume includes Jacqueline Hecht’s illuminating revised biography of Quesnay, a meticulously prepared bibliography of his works, mostly derived from the fonds Mirabeau of the Archives Nationales but also including an exhaustive list of other institutional sources, and a bibliography of secondary works devoted to Quesnay’s medical publications as well as his economic writings.
This invaluable contribution to the study of François Quesnay and the Physiocratic school is an indispensable tool for the scholar interested in economic, social and political developments in the eighteenth century and in the details of vital doctrinal disputes within the Enlightenment.

INED has published numerous other works of interest to seventeenth and eighteenth-century scholars, including:
Cantillon, Essai sur la nature du commerce en général. 1997
J.-P. Schandeler et P. Crépel (ed.) Condorcet, Tableau historique des progrès de l’esprit humain. 2004
C. Behar (ed.) Deparcieux, Essai sur les probabilités de la durée de la vie humaine.2003
J.M. Rohrbasser et J. Véron (eds) Lambert, Contributions mathématiques à l’étude de la mortalité et de la nuptialité 1765-1772. 2006
J.M. Rohrbasser (ed) Süssmilch, L’Ordre divin dans les changements de l’espèce humaine, démontré par la naissance, la mort et la propagation de celle-ci (1741). 1998
J.M. Rohrbasser et J. Véron (eds), Leibniz et les raisonnements sur la vie humaine. 2001
T. Martin (ed.), Arithmétique politique dans la France du XVIIIe siècle, 2003
S. Reungoat, William Petty, Observateur des Iles Britanniques.2004