Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who advocates the doctrines of physiocracy; specifically, one of a group of French philosophers and political economists, followers of François Quesnay (1694-1774), which rose to prominence in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and maintained that a natural constitution or order exists in society, the violation of which has been the cause of all the evils suffered by man.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of the followers of Quesnay of France, who, in the 18th century, founded a system of political economy based upon the supremacy of natural order.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun economics, historical Any of a group of economists in 18th century France who believed that the government should not seek to influence the operation of natural economic laws.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French physiocrate, corresponding to physio- + -crat.

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Examples

  • He holds, however, with Adam Smith, that 'no equal quantity of productive labour employed in manufactures could ever occasion so great a reproduction as in agriculture' (_Grounds of an Opinion, etc. _, p. 35) -- a relic of the 'physiocrat' doctrine.

    The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) James Mill Leslie Stephen 1868

  • The French physiocrat Quesnay depicted an economy as a flow analogous to human circulation -- an attempt to systematize economics and perhaps to compare it to the most experimentally "scientific" of fields available in Quesnay's day -- medicine.

    Teaching Un-Normal Economics, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Economic Reforms under Maria Theresa and Joseph II: Influenced by physiocrat doctrine, the Austrian monarchs sought to assure exports through protectionism but also recognized the importance of skilled labor within Austria and Hungary.

    1699, Jan. 26 2001

  • Girondin, the librarian Chemin Dupontés, which gave rise to this cult; Valentine Hauy, instructor of the blind and former Terrorist, and the physiocrat, Dupont de Nemours, collaborated with him.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913

  • Strummered 5 December 2011 8:08PM physiocrat 5 December 2011 8:08PM

    The Guardian World News Aditya Chakrabortty 2011

  • JoyceDavenport 28 February 2011 7:31PM physiocrat 28 February 2011 7:34PM

    The Guardian World News Dean Baker 2011

  • The poorest pay a far higher proportion of their income on the equivalent of VAT and other indirect taxes, physiocrat

    The Guardian World News Hannah Richards 2010

  • Are we going to have some sort of tax Gestapo policing car boot sales and the like? physiocrat

    Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk 2010

  • Pietro Giannone (1676–1748) created a profound stir with his anticlerical Historia civile del regno di Napoli (1723); Antonio Genovesi (1713–69) was an outstanding physiocrat; Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), with his Scienza nuova (1725), laid the basis of the modern philosophy of history; while Cesare Beccaria (1738–94) in his Dei delitti e delle pene (1764) founded the modern science of penology.

    e. Italy and the Papacy 2001

  • India is a subcontinent and the British network did not encourage trade between the various component parts of India. dirkbruere 5 February 2011 9:02AM londonhongkong 5 February 2011 9:02AM physiocrat 5 February 2011 9:17AM

    The Guardian World News Ian Jack 2011

Comments

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  • One of a school of political economists who followed Quesnay (French economist and physician 1694-1774) in holding that an inherent natural order properly governed society, regarding land as the basis of wealth and taxation, and advocating a laissez-faire economy.

    December 24, 2008

  • Though long past her mouse-catching day

    She thinks current comforts her pay.

    This dizzy old cat

    Is a physiocrat,

    Convinced this is nature's true way.

    September 18, 2017