Note 15 — Chapter I · : THE PHYSIOCRATS

Pursuing this same idea, Dupont writes as follows: “It is thirteen years since a man of exceptional genius, well versed in profound disquisition, and already known for his success in an art where complete mastery only comes with careful observation and complete submission to the laws of nature, predicted that natural laws extended far beyond the bounds hitherto assigned to them. If nature gives to the bee, the ant, or the beaver the power of submitting by common consent and for their own interest to a good, stable, and equable form of government, it can hardly refuse man the power of raising himself to the enjoyment of the same advantages. Convinced of the importance of this view, and of the important consequences that might follow from it, he applied his whole intellectual strength to an investigation of the physical laws which govern society.” Elsewhere he adds: “The natural order is merely the physical constitution which God Himself has given the universe.” (Introduction to Quesnay’s works, p. 21.)

Hector Denis in his Histoire des Doctrines expresses the belief that the most characteristic feature of the Physiocratic system is the emphasis laid upon a naturalistic conception of society. He illustrates this by means of diagrams showing the identity of the circulation of wealth and the circulation of the blood.