François Quesnay

François Quesnay (June 4, 1694 - December 16, 1774) was a French economist of the Physiocratic school. He also practiced surgery.

Life

Quesnay was born at Merey, in today's Eure département, near Paris, 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 la Peyronie, and became surgeon in ordinary to the king. 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 much, and used to call him his thinker; when he ennobled him he gave him for arms three flowers of the pansy (pensée in French, also meaning thought), with the motto Propter excogitalionem mentis.

Related Topics:
Merey - Eure - Département - Paris - Landed proprietor - Mantes - 1737 - François la Peyronie - 1744 - Palace of Versailles - Entresol - Louis XV - Pansy - French

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He now devoted himself principally to economic studies, taking no part in the court intrigues which were perpetually going on around him. About the year 1750 he became acquainted with Jean C. M. V. de Gournay (1712-1759), who was also an earnest inquirer in the economic field; and round these two distinguished men was gradually formed the philosophic sect of the Économistes, or, as for distinction's sake they were afterwards called, the Physiocrates. The most remarkable men in this group of disciples were the elder Mirabeau (author of L'Ami des hommes, 1756-60, and Philosophie rurale, 1763), Nicolas Baudeau (Introduction a la philosophie économique, 1771), G. F. Le Trosne (De l'ordre social, 1777), André Morellet (best known by his controversy with Galiani on the freedom of the grain trade during the Flour War), Mercier Larivière and Dupont de Nemours. Adam Smith, during his stay on the continent with the young Duke of Buccleuch in 1764-1766, spent some time in Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Quesnay and some of his followers; he paid a high tribute to their scientific services in his Wealth of Nations.

Related Topics:
1750 - Jean C. M. V. de Gournay - Mirabeau - Nicolas Baudeau - G. F. Le Trosne - André Morellet - Galiani - Flour War - Mercier Larivière - Dupont de Nemours - Adam Smith - Duke of Buccleuch - 1764 - 1766 - Wealth of Nations

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Quesnay died on December 16, 1774, having lived long enough to see his great pupil, Turgot, in office as minister of finance. He had married in 1718, and had a son and a daughter; his grandson by the former was a member of the first Legislative Assembly.

Related Topics:
Turgot - Minister of finance - 1718 - First Legislative Assembly

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