François Quesnay
| François Quesnay | |
|---|---|
François Quesnay, portrait by Heinz Rieter
|
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| Born |
June 4, 1694 Méré near Versailles |
| Died | December 16, 1774 (aged 80) Versailles |
| Nationality | French |
| Field | Political economics |
| School or tradition |
Physiocrats |
| Influences | Confucius, Cantillon |
| Influenced |
Turgot Manuel Belgrano Henry George Benjamin Franklin, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, Adam Smith |
François Quesnay (French: [fʁɑ̃swa kɛnɛ]; June 4, 1694 – December 16, 1774) was a French economist of the Physiocratic school. He is known for publishing the "Tableau économique" (Economic Table) in 1758, which provided the foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats. This was perhaps the first work attempting to describe the workings of the economy in an analytical way, and as such can be viewed as one of the first important contributions to economic thought. His Le Despotisme de la Chine, written in 1767, describes Chinese politics and society, and his own political support for constitutional Oriental despotism.
Quesnay was born at Méré near Versailles, the son of an advocate and small landed proprietor. Apprenticed at the age of sixteen to a surgeon, he soon went to Paris, studied medicine and surgery there, and, having qualified as a master-surgeon, settled down to practice at Mantes. In 1737 he was appointed perpetual secretary of the academy of surgery founded by François Gigot de la Peyronie, and became surgeon in ordinary to King Louis XV. In 1744 he graduated as a doctor of medicine; he became physician in ordinary to the king, and afterwards his first consulting physician, and was installed in the Palace of Versailles. His apartments were on the entresol, whence the Réunions de l'entresol received their name. Louis XV esteemed Quesnay highly, and used to call him his thinker. When he ennobled him he gave him for arms three flowers of the pansy (derived from pensée, in French meaning thought), with the Latin motto Propter cogitationem mentis.
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