The physiocratic school is a classic school of political economy of the French bourgeoisie in the 1950s and 1970s. The physiocratic school regards the natural order as the highest creed, regards agriculture as the only source of wealth and the basis of all social income, and believes that safeguarding property rights and personal economic freedom is a necessary factor for social prosperity.

Appellation of physiocratic school

In its heyday, the physiocrats were called "economists". 1767, one of its members, Dupont de nemours, edited and published an anthology of Quesnay's works, entitled Fissiau Crate, the natural system most conducive to human management, and proposed for the first time to combine the Greek words "nature" and "rules" as the name of its theoretical system. But at that time, this new name was not widely used. In The Wealth of Nations published by 1776, Smith called them "agricultural system" according to their theory that "land products are regarded as the only source or main source of income and wealth of all countries", while Chinese literally translated them as "agricultural school".

The main representative of the physiocratic school

Quesnay is the founder and leader of the physiocratic school. Some people once thought that Gournay was one of the founders, but Gournay didn't establish any main arguments of the physiocracy school except the thought of economic laissez-faire. Quesnay undoubtedly initiated all the theories of physiocracy. His masterpiece "Economic Table" is a comprehensive summary of this theoretical system.

/kloc-from 1950s to 1970s in 0/8, a group of disciples and followers gradually appeared around Quesnay, forming factions with relatively complete theoretical system and consistent beliefs, as well as political and academic groups with clear programs and organizations. They hold regular meetings to discuss academic issues, and publish journals as the mouthpiece of the school-Journal of Agriculture, Commerce and Finance and Citizen Journal.

Turgut is the most important representative of the physiocratic school after Quesnay. He was deeply influenced by Quesnay, but he was not a believer in Quesnay and hardly participated in the factional activities of the so-called "economist". His investigation on the formation and distribution of wealth is an important document of physiocracy. He developed and revised the arguments of Quesnay and his disciples, making physiocracy as a bourgeois ideology more distinctive. In his place, physiocracy reached its peak.

Agronomy School and Social System

In fact, the system of emphasizing agriculture was the earliest analysis of capitalist production, but it is also a replica of the bourgeoisie under the feudal system and land property rights. Feudalism is explained from the perspective of bourgeois production, while capitalism develops with the imagination of transforming feudal system with large-scale agriculture. In this way, feudalism has the nature of the bourgeoisie, and bourgeois society has acquired the appearance of feudalism. This contradiction between substance and appearance appears in almost all theories of physiocracy.

The physiocratic school became famous in French courts, nobles and palaces at that time. Even in the social occasions of so-called social dignitaries and celebrities in Paris, it became fashionable to praise agricultural reform and wear clothes with peasant colors. Outside France, the rulers of several European countries at that time, such as Catherine II of Russia, Gustav III of Sweden, Leopold II of Tuscany, Charles III of Spain, Joseph II of Austria and Ferdinand I of Naples, were also interested in their theories and ideas. However, their theory aroused the disgust of revolutionary or progressive enlightenment thinkers. Voltaire mercilessly satirized and mocked their theoretical assumptions in The Man with Forty Dwellings.

On the other hand, the physiocrats also deceived themselves. Most of them were dignitaries, and their interests were closely related to the feudal system of France and even Bourbon at that time. They have never realized that what they advocate is a new capitalist system that is opposite to the existing feudal society and can only be established by eliminating the existing society; They always think that all they want is to improve the old system, and the purpose of improvement is to consolidate the existing system.

[Edit this paragraph] Views and opinions of the physiocratic school

Natural order

The natural order is the philosophical basis of the physiocratic system, which was formed under the influence of the Enlightenment School before the French bourgeois revolution. When DuPont de Nemours defined the physiocratic system, he explicitly called it "the science of natural order".

The physiocratic school believes that human society, like the material world, has objective laws that are independent of human will, that is, the natural order is eternal, ideal and perfect. However, the natural order of society is different from the laws of the material world, and it has no absolute binding force. People can accept or deny it with their own will in order to establish an artificial social order. The latter is manifested in various political and economic systems, laws and regulations in different times and countries.

The physiocrats believe that if people understand the natural order and make artificial order according to its norms, society will be in a healthy state; On the other hand, if the artificial order violates the natural order, society will be in a state of disease. They believed that the French society at that time was in a state of disease because the artificial social order violated the natural social order, and their task was to provide a prescription for treating this disease.

The physiocratic theory of natural order proves for the first time that there are objective laws in human society, which puts forward the task of understanding objective laws for political economy. This understanding became the tradition of classical political economy, and created the concept of taking social economy as a measurable system. This concept means that social economy is restricted by certain objective laws; There are internal relations between economic categories; The development of things is predictable in theory. All theories and policies of bourgeois classical political economy are based on this concept. However, due to its class limitations, physiocrats regard the objective laws of human society as eternal laws and the laws of a specific historical stage of society as abstract laws that also dominate all social forms.

The natural order of physiocracy is essentially an idealized capitalist society. Personal freedom and private property are the basic rights of human beings stipulated by the natural order and the main contents of natural human rights. The essence of natural order is the unity of individual interests and public interests, and this unity can only be realized under the free system. Therefore, physiocrats derive economic liberalism from natural order.

The principle of "laissez-faire" can be traced back to Jean Claude, a contemporary French businessman of Cole Bell, and was proved by Gournay, but only in the physiocratic school did it really become a battle slogan marking a new era.

Pure product theory

Pure product theory is the core of physiocracy theory. Their whole system revolves around this theory; All policies are based on this. Physiocrats believe that wealth is a material product, and the source of wealth is not circulation but production. Therefore, the production of wealth means the creation of material and the increase of its quantity. In all economic sectors, they think that only agriculture is productive, because only agriculture can produce both material products and the use value of inputs and outputs, which is manifested in the increase of material wealth. Industry does not create material, but only changes or combines the existing forms of material wealth. Commerce does not create any material wealth, but only changes the time and place of its market, neither of which is produced. The difference between the use value of input and output in agriculture constitutes a "pure product".

Attaching importance to agriculture is the tradition of French classical political economy. BuaGilbert, the founder of French classical political economy, claimed to be the defender of agriculture, believing that agriculture is the foundation of a country's prosperity. The physiocratic school inherited this tradition and demonstrated that agriculture is the source of a country's wealth and the foundation of all social income with the theory of "pure products", which provided a theoretical basis for this traditional view.

Pure product theory is the surplus value theory of the physiocratic school. In fact, the physiocracy school generalizes general capital with agricultural capital and capitalist production with agricultural capitalist management. As the actual representative of industrial capital, land-leasing farmers guide all economic movements. Agriculture operates in a large-scale capitalist mode, and the direct cultivators of the land are hired workers. Production not only creates use value, but also creates value, and the motive of production is to obtain "pure products", that is, surplus value, and land rent is its concrete manifestation.

On the basis of "pure products", the physiocrats put forward the idea of canceling other taxes and collecting only a single rent. They believe that "pure products" are the only possible source of tax revenue. "Pure product" comes down to land rent, so land rent is the only income that can bear tax. Under the compound tax, even if the tax burden is not directly added to the land rent, it will be indirectly attributed to the landlord through transfer. Therefore, it is better to simply cancel all miscellaneous taxes and levy a single rent tax instead. Because simplifying the rent system will reduce the cost of urging fees, this reform actually reduces the burden on landlords.

Circulation and reproduction of capital

When trying to analyze the circulation and reproduction of social wealth and capital, physiocrats have made important contributions. They not only analyzed the material elements that constitute capital in the process of labor, but also studied the forms taken by capital in circulation; Under this premise, the production of total social products circulates among the three social classes through the intermediary of money, which is manifested as the reproduction process of total social capital. At the same time, in the process of reproduction, it includes the analysis of income sources of all social classes, the exchange of capital and income, the relationship between reproduction consumption and final consumption, and the cycle between agriculture and industry. These are fully expressed in Quesnay's economic table.

The collapse of the physiocratic school

Quesnay's death and Turgut's reaction to the reform he promoted after his dismissal marked the rapid collapse of this school. The publication of The Wealth of Nations from 65438 to 0776 dealt a fatal blow to the physiocrats. In theory and policy proposition, Smith's economic thought became the traditional thought of bourgeois classical economics in the future. However, 1789 After the French Revolution, the fiscal policy inspired by Turgut's reform plan adopted by the Constituent Assembly can only be the "dead light" of this system.

Agronomy School and China Ancient Culture

Since the16th century, a large number of ancient China cultural classics have entered Europe through missionaries. /kloc-In the 7th century, the admiration for China culture and the consumption of China commodities became fashionable, which formed the "China fever" all over Europe. "China fever" had a great influence on the Renaissance in Europe in the18th century. At that time, French enlightenment thinkers, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot, Holbach, Quesnay and so on. They worship China culture very much, and regard the humanitarian values, democracy, equality, freedom and fraternity in ancient China culture as important ideological sources for establishing an ideal order. Holbach declared that if France wants to prosper, it must replace Christian morality with Confucian morality. Voltaire said, "The happiest and most respectable time on earth is when people respect the laws and regulations of Confucius", and "Europeans should be apprentices of China morally". Voltaire even felt that when European countries were savages in the forest, China people had been able to govern the country with perfect and wise systems. He deeply regrets that he can't live in a country like China. In this context, Quesnay and Turgut, the leaders of the physiocratic school, were greatly influenced by the ancient culture of China in the process of establishing the theoretical system of the physiocratic school.

Quesnay was known as "Confucius in Europe" at that time. Quesnay had great respect for Confucius. He once wrote A Brief History of Confucius and spoke highly of Confucius. When comparing Confucius with the ancient Greek sages, they obviously praised the former and belittled the latter, saying that Confucius' Analects of Confucius was far superior to the philosophy of the ancient Greek sages. The thought of attaching importance to agriculture in Confucian philosophy obviously had an important influence on the establishment of Quesnay's view of attaching importance to agriculture. After Quesnay entered the Palace of Versailles as a doctor, he urged Louis XV to follow the example of the ancient emperor of China 1756 through Madame Pombadou and hold a ceremony to show his importance to agriculture. In the articles promoting the thought of the physiocratic school in the Journal of Rural Commercial Finance and Citizen Magazine, a large number of references are not European documents, but China classics. In the monograph "Agronomy, or the Natural System Most Beneficial to Human Management" edited by Du Pont, in order to show its sacredness and authority, the publishing place was actually marked as "Beijing". The formation of the thought of "natural order" as the theoretical basis of the physiocratic school was also deeply influenced by China's ancient philosophy. 1769, Quesnay published the absolutism of Chinese Empire, and the title of the eighth chapter of the book is the comparison between China's law and natural law as the foundation of a rich and powerful government. Quesnay regarded China as an ideal country to implement the laws of nature, and expounded the economic spirit of liberalism through the investigation of China's institutional practice. Quesnay's view of natural law, like Taoism's "Tao is nature" and Confucianism's "Heaven and Nature" in China's ancient philosophy, embodies the reverence for nature. To be sure, China ancient culture is at least one of the important sources of Quesnay's view of natural order.

Turgut is another important representative of the physiocratic school. According to Marx's evaluation, Turgut's theoretical system made the physiocratic system reach its peak. Turgut's most important economic work, Investigation on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth, has a high position in the history of economic theory. Schumpeter believes that "it puts forward a complete economic theoretical system" and "Durge's theoretical framework, although ahead of the Wealth of Nations in time, is obviously superior to the theoretical framework of the Wealth of Nations." (3) The writing of Turgut is directly related to the culture of China and China. 1763, two young people studying in China, Gao Lisi and Yang, finished their studies and prepared to return to China. "At that time, French economists generally believed that China was the birthplace of enlightened politics; People hope that these two young people in China can let their European host countries know about the internal situation in China. " (4) So Turgut put forward 52 economic questions to them, which is Turgut's Collection of China Questions, with the intention of answering them on the basis of studying their own economic system after returning home, so as to help French thinkers comprehensively, systematically and truly grasp China's economic situation. "In order to enable them to understand the purpose and significance of these questions, I wrote a brief analysis of various social labor and wealth distribution before these questions." (1) This is the direct reason for investigating the formation and distribution of wealth. Turgut's questions and analysis are related to his understanding of China's economy to varying degrees, or he hopes to get an explanation from China's practice, or he gets inspiration from China's situation, or he directly draws nutrition from China's ancient culture. Therefore, some researchers say that Turgut's book Investigation on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth was "most influenced by China". ②

In a sense, the physiocratic school is a bridge between ancient China culture and modern western economics. Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, had many contacts with Quesnay and Turgut during his trip to France. It was in these contacts that Smith became interested in economics and set about making a writing plan for The Wealth of Nations. The discussion with Quesnay and Turgut is of great help to Smith's conception of research ideas and the formation of writing framework, and the physiocrats' admiration for China culture also has a certain influence on Smith. In Smith's The Wealth of Nations, a large number of materials and documents from China are quoted as evidence.

Mercantilism (mercantilism, also known as "commercial standard", 16 to18th century).

Mercantilism is a popular political and economic system in Europe in the18th century. It is based on the belief that a country's national strength is based on the wealth it can obtain through its trade surplus-that is, its exports exceed its imports. The16 ~17th century after the disintegration of feudalism was the economic theory or system of primitive accumulation of capital period in western Europe, which reflected the interests of the commercial bourgeoisie in primitive accumulation of capital period. 15- 18 was popular in Europe and was later replaced by classical economics. People think that the more gold and silver a country accumulates, the richer it becomes. Advocate the state to intervene in economic life, prohibit the export of gold and silver and increase the import of gold and silver. Mercantilists believe that to obtain this kind of wealth, the government had better control agriculture, commerce and manufacturing; Developing foreign trade monopoly; Protect the domestic market through high tariffs and other trade restrictions; And use the colonies to provide raw materials and markets for the manufacturing industry in the home country. This name was first put forward by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. But in 1776, Adam Smith attacked mercantilism in his works. He advocates free trade and enlightened economic policies. However, it was not until the middle of19th century that Britain abandoned its economic policy based on mercantilist philosophy.

First, the period and background of mercantilism.

The research and theory of international trade in history almost all came from the works of mercantilist school at the earliest.

Mercantilism is the initial economic theory of the bourgeoisie. It came into being and developed in the period of primitive accumulation of capital in Europe, which reflected the interests and requirements of commercial capital in this period. It makes a preliminary theoretical exploration on the capitalist mode of production.

/kloc-at the end of 0/5, western European society entered the period of disintegration of feudal society, and capitalist relations of production began to sprout and develop; Great geographical discoveries have expanded the world market and greatly stimulated commerce, navigation and industry. Commercial capital plays an outstanding role in promoting the unification of the domestic market and the formation of the world market and promoting the development of foreign trade; With the growth of commercial capital, some countries in western Europe have established feudal autocratic and centralized countries, and used state power to support the development of commercial capital. With the development of commercial capital and the implementation of the national policy of supporting commercial capital, there has been a demand to explain these economic policies in theory, and the mercantilist theory has gradually formed.

Mercantilism is an economic philosophy that was widely respected in the transitional period from feudal system to capitalist system in Western Europe (primitive accumulation of capital period), specifically, it was15-1early 8th century. Mercantilism can be divided into early mercantilism and late mercantilism.

Mercantilism abandoned the teachings and ethical norms of scholasticism in feudal society in western Europe and began to observe and explain social and economic phenomena from a secular perspective based on the experience of commercial capitalists. It takes the movement of commercial capital as the object of investigation, and studies the movement of money-commodity-money from the circulation field.

Second, the mercantilist trade and economic thought

1, holding that precious metal (currency) is the only criterion for measuring wealth. The purpose of all economic activities is to obtain gold and silver. In addition to mining gold and silver mines, foreign trade is the real source of monetary wealth. Therefore, to make the country rich and strong, we should try our best to export more than import, because the trade surplus will lead to the net inflow of precious metals. The more precious metals a country has, the richer and stronger it becomes. Therefore, the government should encourage exports as much as possible, and do not advocate or even restrict the import of goods (especially luxury goods).

2. Because it is impossible for all participants to exceed the quota at the same time, and the total amount of gold and silver at any time is fixed, the profit of a country is always based on the losses of other countries, which means that international trade is a "zero-sum game".

Third, the limitations of mercantilism.

1, the policy conclusion of mercantilism only holds in some cases, not in the general sense;

2. The mercantilist view that international trade is a zero-sum game is obviously wrong;

Mercantilism is also wrong to equate money with real wealth. It is based on such a wrong understanding that mercantilism rashly equates a high level of money accumulation and supply with economic prosperity, and regards the trade surplus and the inflow of precious metals such as gold and silver as the only policy objectives.

Mercantilism advocates that the government should control the country's economy in order to damage and weaken the opponent's strength and enhance its own strength. /kloc-At the beginning of the 5th century, the Renaissance entered the primary stage of development, and mercantilism rose. /kloc-in the 0/7th century, with the decline of the Renaissance, mercantilism gradually began to collapse. In terms of time, mercantilism can be said to be synchronized with the Renaissance. At the same time, two social trends of thought, humanism and mercantilism, have their profound roots, that is, the pursuit of faster development of commodity production, rapid increase of commercial capital and continuous accumulation of monetary capital have become an irresistible trend at that time, which is an important reason for the emergence of mercantilism. However, the emergence and deeper background of mercantilism is the change of economic form and social class relations in Western Europe under the impact of the powerful trend of pursuing the increase of commercial capital and currency accumulation. The development of the new economy has caused changes in all social strata, and the old aristocrats have become real businessmen, which reflects the changes in the transition from natural economy to commodity economy. Mercantilism came into being under such a background.

Fourth, the development stage of mercantilism.

The development of mercantilism has experienced two stages: early mercantilism and late mercantilism.

① Early mercantilism came into being in15 ~16th century. In foreign trade, it emphasizes buying less, prohibits exporting money abroad, and tries to control the movement of money by administrative means to store as much money as possible, so it is also called currency difference theory.

(2) Late mercantilism prevailed in the first half of17th century, emphasizing selling more, advocating allowing money to be exported abroad, and holding that as long as the total amount of money purchased from foreign goods is less than the total amount of money obtained from selling domestic goods, more money can be obtained. In the later period of mercantilism, in order to ensure the export surplus in foreign trade, the policy of protecting tariffs was adopted. Because the mercantilism in the later period tried to control or regulate the flow of goods and develop the handicraft industry in the workshop, it was also called the trade balance theory.

The difference between early mercantilism and late mercantilism reflects the different requirements for commercial capital in different historical stages. Mercantilism promotes the relationship between goods and money and the development of capitalist workshops and handicrafts, and creates the necessary conditions for the growth and establishment of capitalist modes of production.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) is the main content of mercantilism.

(1) Precious metals such as gold and silver are indispensable to a country's wealth. If there is no precious metal deposit in this country, it must be obtained through trade.

(2) foreign trade must maintain a surplus, that is, exports must exceed imports. Therefore, Elizabeth I not only took many measures that were beneficial to the development of trade, but also improved the political status of businessmen. The development of mercantilism can be divided into two stages: the early mercantilist period from 15 to16th century and the late mercantilist period from the second half of16th century to17th century. Early mercantilism advocated taking administrative measures to prohibit the export of currency and the accumulation of monetary wealth. The difference between late mercantilism and early mercantilism is that the country should export its own currency abroad to expand the purchase of foreign goods. However, the principle they demand to abide by in foreign trade is that the total amount of money purchased from foreign goods must be less than the total amount of money obtained from selling domestic goods, and the purpose is still to let more money flow back to China. Therefore, the late mercantilist advocates that foreign trade must have more output than input in order to maintain a surplus.

Sixth, the book Mercantilist Economics.

Author: [Sweden] magnusson

Translator: Wang Genbei/Chen Lei

ISBN: 97878 10495882

Press: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press

Pricing: 32.0.

Binding: paperback

Publication year: 200 1-5- 1

introduce ...

The contents of this book include Mercantilism: For Chinese Translation, Translator's Words, Introduction, Classical Mercantilism Part I, Early Spanish Mercantilism: First Analysis of Underdevelopment, Appreciation of Mercantilism, Historical and Social Concepts of Mercantilism, and Mercantilism: A Rent-seeking Society.

Chapter six: Virginia tobacco in the early days of Stuart's rule; The second part is the revival of modern mercantilism, mercantilism and founding economics, historical economics and mercantilism in Britain: new mercantilism and new mercantilism concepts in American official thought in the 1920s and early 1930s; The third part is reflection, summative reaction and name comparison table.