Cantillon, Quesnay, and the Tableau Economique.

Schumpeter argued, long ago, that Quesnay's tableau economique was based on Cantillon, but this claim has never been spelled out in detail and seems not to have been generally accepted, since many writers still write of the tableau economique as though it were Quesnay's alone. This paper examines the relation between Cantillon and Quesnay in more detail than before and argues (a) that the relation between Cantillon's analysis of circulation and Quesnay's tableau is too close to be a coincidence, but (b) that the use Quesnay put it to is quite different from its role in Cantillon's system.Cantillon, Quesnay, Tableau Economique

Level of income and income distribution in mid-18th century France, according to Francois Quesnay

The paper uses the data from Francois Quesnay's writings to derive a social table for pre-revolutionary France, estimate country's mean income and income distribution. These Quesnay-based estimates are compared with more recent estimates of 18th century French incomes and inequality.pre-revolutionary France; inequality; social tables; Quesnay

Quesnay and Leontief on Capital and Income

I analyze Quesnay's explanation of the "Tableau Economique" of 1766 in order to show that he made a clear distinction between capital and income. In holding this distinction, Quesnay rejected the nowadays currently accepted views that the full value of the national output is equal to aggregate income and that the value of national output is equal to the payments to labor, capital and land. I analyze the foundation upon which Quesnay established the distinction and show that it is sound. In so doing, I also discuss the validity of Phillips' standard interpretation of the "Tableau" in terms of input-output tables. I show that this interpretation distorts Quesnay so seriously that it attributes to him the rejection of the distinction of capital and income. On the theoretical basis provided by the analysis of Quesnay's distinction, I contend that Leontief's input-output tables do not show that the aggegate value of output is equal to aggregate income, but the contrary, that is, that Quesnay's distinction was right.national accounting, income accounting, input-output analysis

Conceptualising rural-urban dynamics

This paper revisits the work of Richard Cantillon and Francois Quesnay in order to conceptualise the dynamics between rural and urban areas in an economy. Concepts of social surplus and economy as a circular flow are presented in order to highlight the interrelationship between the growth processes in the rural as well as urban areas. The paper concludes by pointing out the significance of the works of Cantillon and Quesnay.Economic growth; Cantillon; Quesnay; Urban; Rural

Anglo Saxon vs Continental scholarship: on critical editions of economic classics

Discussione critica dei criteri da seguire per edizioni di testi classici dell'economia e di quelli effettivamente seguiti nelle principali edizioni di testi classici dell'economia dalla fine dell'800 ad oggi; in particolare si discute l'edizione delle opere economiche di F. Quesnay pubblicata dall'INED nel 200

Governing circulation: A critique of the biopolitics of security

About the book: This book examines global governance through Foucaultian notions of governmentality and security, as well as the complex intersections between the two. The volume explores how Foucault's understanding of the general economy of power in modern society allows us to consider the connection of two broad possible dynamics: the global governmentalization of security and the securitization of global governance. If Foucault's work on governmentality and security has found resonance in IR scholarship in recent years it is in large part due to his understanding of how these forms of power must necessarily take into account the management of circulation that, in seeking to maximize ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ circulatory flows, brings into play and problematizes the 'inside'/'outside' upon which domestic and international spaces have been traditionally understood. Indeed, Foucault introduces a set of conceptual tools that can inform our analyses of globalization, global governance and security in ways that have been left largely unexplored in the discipline of IR

The Process of Circulation in Quesnay's Tableau Économique

At the end of the 17th century capitalism had become the new social and economic order in northern Western Europe. Ever since the trading channels through which money and commodities change hands between the different agents, the actual sequence of these all-comprising monetary exchange processes, and the intertwining of the processes of production and circulation have always been a central issue in heterodox economic thought. The paper discusses Quesnay´s contribution to the theoretical foundation of the social process of circulation of capital in a monetary production economy in the Tableau économique. Additionally, the accounting dynamics of the circulation process of the agricultural kingdom is described by means of system of credit-debit tables currently used by German authors.accounting dynamics, circulation process, effective demand, input-output analysis, monetary production economy, physiocracy

Structural models and structural change: analytical principles and methodological issues

Structural analysis is the main topic of this paper and structural change is a dominant theme of the present work. The analysis of structural models and of theories of structural changes carried out in this paper has a double meaning. On the one hand, it allows to pick up several essential principles that characterize these models, on the other hand, it should allow us to reconsider some important methodological issues under a new light, such as different methods of decomposition of the productive systems, the problem of complexity and the strategies to reduce complexity. Moreover, the paper tries to compare Quesnay’s Tableau, taken as a benchmark model, with Leontief’s, von Neumann’s and Sraffa’s models to pick up the different features of these models with respect to his theoretical framework and also to identify their characteristics for structural analysis and structural change.

The French Tradition. An alternative theoretical framework

This paper deals with the French economic thought throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A series of distinctive concepts were developed to come to a clear understanding of the economic problems which the French authors were interested in. J.A. Schumpeter called these economists 'the French tradition'. The arguments presented in this paper aim at illustrating the process of construction of this framework of theoretical concepts which can be regarded as an unsuccessful alternative to the British classical economics. However, this fruitful view of the economy has left a legacy of important contributions to economic theory..Classical and Preclassical, Economic Methodology, Entrepreneurship, Production and Organisations.