The Economic Table

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which restricted its market. The nation, Quesnay thought, should cease to live upon its capital to the detriment of efficient production, and a greater portion of wealth should be devoted to the support of agricultural industry (productive expenses original: dépenses productives), a smaller to such relative superfluities as decoration (sterile expenses original: dépenses stériles; Quesnay categorized any labor that did not produce a "net product" from the land, such as manufacturing or commerce, as "sterile"); while a more equitable and economical principle of taxation should be adopted, by the levy of one tax and one alone—upon the net returns of agriculture (a single tax original: impôt unique),—in place of the cumbrous fiscal system in use. The economic activities of the nation freed from their former shackles were to be allowed free play. The beneficent operation of “natural laws” The Physiocrats believed that there was a natural order to society and economics, much like the laws of physics, which would function perfectly if left alone. would then ensure a maximum of productivity both of wealth and of taxes, while the simple taxation of wealth at its source would work the minimum of mischief. The statesman’s rule of thumb was to be "let things be" original: laissez-faire; this term became the rallying cry for free-market capitalism, suggesting that government interference in the economy should be minimal.; and his danger-post was, in the words of Quesnay’s motto, "poor peasants, poor kingdom; poor kingdom, poor king" original: pauvres paysans, pauvre royaume; pauvre royaume, pauvre roi.

The Economic Table original: Tableau Oeconomique essays, by analysis of the circulation of wealth, to show the importance of wise consumption in the accumulation of reproductive capital. It is assumed that agriculture, “as in England,” yields a return of 100 per cent. The further hypothesis is adopted of an equal division of expenses into those which are “productive” and those which are not, and the continued reproduction of the productive expenses is shown on the left of the table, the successive sections of unproductive expenses on the right. If the hypothesis be modified so as to allow the right hand column to preponderate at the expense of the left “it is seen that an opulent nation may very rapidly be ruined by [e.g.] excessive luxury of decoration.” Conversely a preponderance on the left will increase the national resources. Further assumptions as to the amount (300 livres The livre was the primary currency of France from 781 to 1794.) necessary for the support of an average family, and the number of ploughs needed for cultivation of the country (1 per 120 acres and as many men as there are ploughs)