PHYSIOLOGUS
68
PHYSIOLOGUS
principles would be sooner secured by the sovereign
power of a single man.
Economic Doctrine. — Quesnay divides the citizens of a nation into three classes: the productive, which cultivates the soil and pays a rent to the landed pro- prietors, the proprietors (Turgot's classe disponible), who receive the rent or net product {produit net) of agriculture, and the barren (classe sterile), which com- prises those engaged in other occupations than that of agriculture, and produces no surplus. For example, in a country producing five billions of agricultural wealth annually, two billions will go to the proprie- tors as rent. With this the projirietors will buy one billion's worth of agricultural products and one bil- lion'sworth of themanufacturedproductsof thebarren class. The productive class also will buy one billion's worth of the products of the barren class. The barren class will spend the two billions which it receives in buying one billion's worth of agricultural products upon which to subsist and one billion's worth of raw material to work up into its finished product. Thus the barren class receive two billions and spend two billions. The value of their product equals the cost of their subsistence plus the cost of the raw material. Thus industry and commerce are barren. Agricul- ture is productive, since it supports those who are engaged in it and produces in addition a surplus. The national welfare depends upon having this surplus production as large as possible. In other words, a nation will prosper not in proportion as it succeeds in getting foreign money in return for its manufac- tures, but in proportion to the amount of its net prod- uct. The mercantilists, therefore, made a mistake in encouraging manufactures and commerce at the expense of agriculture. The true policy is to encourage agriculture. Statesmen of the mercantile school thought it desirable to have cheap food so that the home industries could compete with the foreign and thus the nation might secure a favourable balance of trade which would bring money into the country. The physiocrats rejected the balance of trade argu- ment and held that dear food was desirable because this meant the prosperity of agriculture and the swell- ing of the net product. Quesnay even held that under some circumstances it might be desirable to levy a duty on imported agricultural products or to grant an export bounty in order to keep up prices. Holding that the incomes received by the ))roductive and sterile classes were just sufficient for their support, the phys- iocrats believed that any tax levied upon the members of either of these classes must be shifted until it finally fell upon the net product belonging to the proprietors. In the interest of economy of administration, there- fore, they urged that a single tax be levied upon rent. This was their celebrated impot unique. The proposal was somewhat similar to the more recent demands of Henry George for a single tax. The physiocrats sought to protect the landed proprietors, while George wished to expropriate them.
The School. — Most of the ideas of the physiocratic school are found in earlier writings. The expression laissez faire is said to have been used by a French merchant, Legendre, in answering a question ad- dressed by Colbert to a gathering of merchants con- cerning the needs of industry. The idea is developed in the writings of Bois-Guillebert (1712) and the policy was advocated by the Marquis d'Argenson in 1735. Gournay, a contemporary of Quesnay, seems to have originated the extended expression laissez faire et laissez passer. This formula called for freedom of internal commerce and manufacture. Some critics hold that Gournay is equally entitled with Quesnay to be called the founder of the physiocratic school on account of the currency which he gave to the doctrine of freedom of trade. Other sources are Hume's criti- cism of the balance of trade theory, and Cantillon, "Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en G(5n6ral", in
which the importance of agriculture is recognized and
the doctrine of produit net developed. The elder
Mirabeau was Quesnay's first disciple. His "Phi-
losophie rurale" (1763) gained disciples. Dupont
de Nemours, who later exerted considerable influence
in the Constituent Assembly in the discussions on tax-
ation, wrote several %vorks in defence of the system.
Other important writers were Baudeau, Mereier de la
Riviere, and Letrosne. The most eminent of Ques-
nay's disciples was Turgot, who, as Intendant of
Limoges and afterwards as minister of finance under
Louis XVI, attempted to apply some of the physio-
cratic principles practically (Reflexions sur la forma-
tion et la distribution dcs richesses, 1766). Outside
of France the school had not many disciples. The
best known are the Swiss Iselin and the German
Schlettwein. The latter was engaged by the Margrave
Karl Friedrich of Baden, a friend of IMirabeau, to
introduce the single tax in three villages of Baden.
The experiment, made under unfavourable conditions,
was soon abandoned. In Italy the physiocratic school
had few followers. In England, on account of the
advanced position of trade and industry, it had none.
Criticism. — The principal service of the physiocrats to modern political economy was not the discovery of any one of their doctrines, but their attempt to for- mulate a science of society out of materials already at hand. It was from this system as a base that Adam Smith set out to give a new impetus to the study of economic phenomena. Another important contribu- tion consisted in calling attention to the weaknesses of the mercantile system. Laissez faire was a good doctrine for the eighteenth century because there was need of a reaction, but it was a mistake to set it up as a universal principle applicable under all condi- tions. The chief weakness in the physiocratic teach- ing lay in its theory of value. While agriculture brings forth the raw material of production, commerce and manufactures are equally productive of wealth. In a sense, the physiocrats recognized this, but they held that in producing this wealth the manufacturing and commercial classes use up an equivalent amount of value. This is a gratuitous assumption, but even if true, the same thing could be said of the so-called productive class. Moreover, if wages were governed by the "iron law" both in agriculture and in manu- factures and commerce, as the physiocrats assume, the "net product" would be made up of wealth created by the commercial and manufacturing classes as well as by the agricultural class. The theory of the impot unique or single tax rested upon the assumption that all incomes, except those of the proprietors, were at the existence minimum. Since this is not true, it is also not true that all taxes levied upon the other classes will ultimately be paid by the proprietors.
HiGGS, The Physiocrats (London, 1S97): Oncken, (Euvrea ^conomiques et pfiilosophiques de Fr. Quesnay (Frankfort, 1888); Idem in Handwtirterbuck d, Staatswissenschaften, s. v. Quesnay; Ha.sbach. D. altg. philosophischen Grundlagen d. von F. Quesnay u. A. Smith begriindeten politischen Oekonomie (Leipzig, 1S90).
Frank O'Hara.
Physiologus, an early Christian work of a popular theological type, describing animals real or fabulous and giving each an allegorical interpretation. Thus the story is told of the lion whose cubs are born dead and receive life when the old lion breathes upon them, and of the phcenix which burns itself to death and rises on the third day from the ashes; both are taken as types of Christ. The unicorn also which only per- mits itself to be cajitured in the lap of a pure virgin is a type of the Incarnation; the pelican that sheds its own blood in order to sprinkle therewith its dead young, so that they may live again, is a type of the salvation of mankind by the death of Christ on the Cross. Some allcgiiries set forth the deceptive entice- ments of the De\il and his defeat by Christ; others
