Note 60 — Chapter I · : THE PHYSIOCRATS

One is perhaps surprised to find that freedom of work—in other words, the abolition of corporations—is not included in their list, especially since the credit for the downfall of those institutions is usually given to the Physiocrats. Their writings contain only very occasional reference to this topic, because industrial labour is regarded as sterile, and reform touching its organisation concerned them but little. They did, however, protest against the rule that confined the right to engage in a trade to those who had received an express privilege from the Crown. They considered that “to an honest soul this was the most odious maxim which the spirit of domination and rapacity ever invented.” (Baudeau, in Éphémérides, 1768, vol. iv.) Turgot’s famous Edict of January 1776, abolishing the rights of corporations and establishing liberty for all, is, with good reason, attributed to Physiocratic influence.