FRANOIS QUESNAY (1694-1774) JUNE 1766 ANALYZE FORMULA ARITHMETIC ECONOMIC TABLE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ANNUAL EXPENDITURE Of an AGRICULTURAL

NATION [The text which follows is that of the edition of Physiocracy, or natural Constitution of the economic Government of an agricultural kingdom, published in 1768 by Dupont de Nemours under the address of Leyde.] When prosperous agriculture, all other arts flower with it, but when the culture is given up, by some cause that it is, all other work, as well on ground as on sea, vanishes at the same time. SOCRATE in Xnophon.

The nation is reduced to three classes of citizens: the productive class, the class of the owners and the sterile class. The productive class is that which makes reappear by the culture of the territory the annual richnesses of the nation, which makes the advances of the expenditure of work of the agriculture, and which annually pays the incomes of the owners of the grounds. One contains in the dependence of this class all work and all the expenditure which is made there until the sale of the productions to the first hand, it is by this sale that one knows the value of the annual reproduction of the richnesses of the nation. The class of the owners includes/understands the sovereign, the owners of the grounds and the dcimateurs. This class remains by the income or product Net of the culture, which is paid to him annually by the productive class, after this one took, on the reproduction which it makes reappear annually, richnesses necessary to refund its annual advances and to maintain its richnesses exploitation. The sterile class is made of all the citizens occupied with other services and other work that those of the agriculture, and whose expenditure is paid by the productive class and the class of the owners, who themselves draw their incomes from the productive class. To follow and calculate clearly the reports/ratios of these various classes between them, it is necessary to be fixed at an unspecified case, because one cannot establish a positive calculation on simple abstractions. Thus let us suppose a large kingdom whose territory carried to its higher degree of agriculture, would bring back every year a reproduction of the value of five billion, and where the permanent state of this value would be established on the constant prices which have course between the mercantile nations, if there is constantly a free competition of trade, and a whole safety of the property of the richnesses of exploitation of agriculture (1). The economic Table contains the three annual classes and their richnesses, and described their trade in the form which follows.
CLASSIFY CLASS CLASSIFIES productive owners sterile ___ ___ ___ Avances Returned annual Advances of this of two billion for this class classifies, amount with this class, it of of the sum of one two billion (2) expenditure a billion of billion which which produced five purchases with the class is spent by the class billion, productive and the other sterile one in purchases of which two billion billion in purchases with the raw materials with are in product Net classifies sterile. the productive class. or income.

Thus the productive class sells for a billion productions withowners of the income, and for a billion with the sterile class which buys the raw materials there its works, Ci. . 2 billion. The billion that the owners of the income spent in purchases with the sterile class, is employed by this class for the subsistence the agents of which it is made up, in purchases productions taken with the productive class, Ci. . 1 billion.

Total of the purchases made by the owners of the income and the sterile class with the productive class, Ci. 3 billion. Of this three billion received by the productive class for three billion productions which it sold, it owes them two billion to the owners for the current year the income, and it spends about it a billion in purchases works taken with the sterile class. This last class retains this sum for the replacement of its advances, which were spent initially with the productive class in purchases of raw materials that it employed in its works. Thus its advances do not produce anything; it spends them, they are returned to him, and always remain in year reserve by year. The raw materials and work for the works assemble the sales of the sterile class to two billion, therefore a billion is spent for the subsistence the agents which make this class; and it is seen that there are only consumption or destruction of productions and not of reproduction; because this class remains only of the successive payment of the remuneration due to its work, which is inseparable from an expenditure employed in subsistence, i.e., in expenditure of pure consumption, without regeneration of what vanishes by this sterile expenditure, which is taken in entirety on the annual reproduction of the territory. The other billion is reserved for the replacement its advances, which, the following year will be employed again with the productive class in purchases of raw materials for the works that the sterile class manufactures. Thus the three billion that the productive class received (S) for the sales which it made to the owners income and with the sterile class, are employed by the productive class with the payment of the income of the current year of two billion and in purchases of a billion works which it pays with the sterile class. The walk of this trade between the various classes, and its essential conditions are not hypothetical. Whoever will want to reflect, will see that they are accurately copied according to nature: but the data which one was useful oneself, and one prevented some, are here applicable only to the case in question. The various states of prosperity or deterioration of an agricultural nation offer a multitude of other cases and consequently of other data, of which each one is the base of a particular calculation which is clean for him in any rigour. Those from where we left fix, according to the most constant rule in the natural order, to five billion the total reproduction that the productive class makes reappear annually with two billion annual advances on a territory such as that which we described. According to this assumption, the annual advances reproduce two hundred and fifty percent. The income of the owners can be then equal in advance annual. But these data have conditions sine quabus not, they suppose that the freedom of the trade supports the flow of the productions at a handsome price, for example, the price of corn to 18 pounds the setier; they suppose besides that the farmer has to pay directly or indirectly other loads only the income: a part, for example, the two seventh, must form the income of the sovereign. According to these data on a total income of two billion, the share of the sovereign would be 572 million (3); that of the owners would be of four seventh or a billion 144 million; that of the dcimateurs of a seventh or 286 million, the tax included/understood.

There is no manner of establishing the tax which can provide such a great public revenue, without causing any deterioration in the annual reproduction of the nation (4). The owners, the sovereign and all the nation have a great interest which the tax is established in entirety on the income of the grounds immediately; because any other form of imposition would be against the natural order, because it would be prejudicial with the reproduction and the tax, and that the tax would even fall down on the tax. All ici-bas with the natural laws is subjugated: the men are endowed with the intelligence necessary to know them and observe them; but the multiplicity of the objects requires great combinations which form the bottom of an obvious science strong extent, whose study is essential to avoid the mistakes in practice. Of the five billion total reproduction, the owners of the income and the sterile class bought some for three billion for their consumption; thus it still remains with the productive class for two billion productions; this class bought moreover for a billion works to the sterile class, which makes him funds annual of three billion, which is consumed by the various occupied agents, with various work of this class which is paid by the annual advances of the culture, and with various day labourers repairs of the funds of the establishment which are paid by the interests about which one will speak. Thus the annual expenditure of the productive class is three billion, knowledge two billion productions which it retains for its consumption, and a billion works that it bought with the sterile class. This three billion what is called forms the RESUMPTIONS of the productive class of which two billion constitutes the annual advances which are consumed for the direct work of the reproduction of the five billion that this class makes reappear annually to restore and perpetuate the expenditure which vanishes by consumption; the other billion is taken by this same class on its sales for the interests the advances its establishment. One will make feel the need for these interests. 1 the funds of the richnesses of exploitation which constitutes the primitive advances is prone to a daily deterioration which requires continual repairs, indispensably necessary so that this funds important remainder in the same state, and does not go gradually towards a total destruction which would destroy the culture and consequently the reproduction, and consequently the richnesses of the State, and consequently also the population. 2 the culture is inseparable from several great accidents which sometimes almost entirely destroy harvest; such are the frost, hail, the corn-cockle, the floods, the mortality of the cattle, etc, etc If the farmers did not have any funds in reserve, it would follow that after such accidents they could not pay the owners and the sovereign, or that they could not provide for the expenditure of their culture the following year; this last case would be that which would always arrive waited until the sovereign and the owners have the authority to be made pay; and one feels the disastrous consequences of a similar destruction of culture which would fall down soon and without resource on the owners on the sovereign, the dcimateurs, all the remainder of the nation.

The interests of the advances of the establishment of the farmers must thus be included/understood in their annual recoveries. They are used to face these great accidents and with the daily maintenance of the richnesses of exploitation who ask to be repaired unceasingly. It was noticed higher (note 1) that the primitive advances were of approximately five times stronger than the annual advances; on the current assumption where the annual advances are two billion, the primitive advances are thus often billion, the annual interests of a billion is only on the foot of ten percent. If one considers the quantity of expenditure to which they must provide; if one thinks of the importance of their destination; if one reflects that without them the payment of the tenant farming and the tax would never be ensured, that the regeneration of the expenditure of the company would die out, that the funds of richnesses of exploitation and consequently, the culture would disappear, that this devastation would destroy most of mankind, and would return the other to live in the forests; it will be felt that it is necessary much of it that the rate of ten percent for the interests of the perishable advances of the culture is a too strong rate. We do not say that all the farmers withdraw annually, in addition to their annual advances, ten percent, for the interests of their primitive advances; but we say that such is one of the principal conditions of a state of prosperity; that all the times that that is not thus at a nation, this nation are in deterioration, and in a progressive year deterioration by year, such as, when its walk is known, one can announce by calculation the moment of the whole destruction. We say besides that funds placed as advantageously for the nation as that of the advances of its culture must by itself bring back Net to the farmers who join to it their work and the use of their intelligence, an annual interest at least as extremely as that which one pays to the lazy shareholders. The total sum of these interests is spent annually, because the farmers do not leave them idle; because in the intervals where they are not obliged to employ them with the rparations' they do not fail to make them profitable to increase and to improve their culture without what they could not provide for the great accidents. For this reason one counts the interests in the sum of the annual expenditure. SUMMARY The total of the five billion divided initially between the productive class and the class the owners, being spent annually in a regular order which ensures the same annual reproduction perpetually there is a billion which is spent by the owners in purchases made with the productive class, and a billion in purchases made with the sterile class, the productive class which sells for three billion productions with the two other classes returns there two billion for the payment the income and in expenditure a billion in purchases which it makes with the sterile class; thus the sterile class receives two billion which it employs with the productive class in purchases for the subsistence of its agents and the raw materials of its works; and the productive class spends itself annually for two billion productions, which supplements the expenditure or the overall consumption of the five billion annual reproduction.

Such is the regular order of the distribution of the expenditure of the five billion that the productive class makes reappear annually by the expenditure of two billion annual advances, included/understood in the total expenditure the five billion annual reproduction. One at present will offer to the eyes of the reader the arithmetic formula of the distribution of this expenditure. With the right-hand side at the head, is the sum of the advances of the productive class, which were spent the previous year, to give birth to harvest from the current year. Below this sum is a line which separates it from the column of the sums that this class receives. With the left, are the sums which receives the sterile class. In the medium, at the head, is the sum of the income which is divided on the right and on the left, to the two classes, where it is spent. The division of expenditure is marked by punctuated lines which leave the sum of the income and are going down obliquely to the one and with the other class. At the end of these lines is on both sides the sum which the owners of the income spend in purchases with each one as of the these classes. The reciprocal trade between the two classes is also marked by punctuated lines which are going down obliquely from the one to the other class where the purchases are done; and at the end of each line is the sum that one of the two classes thus reciprocally receives other by the trade which they exert between them for their expenditure (5). Lastly, calculation finishes each side by the total sum of the receipt of each of the two classes. And it is seen that in the case given, when the distribution of the expenditure follows the order which one described and detailed above, the receipt of the productive class, by including/understanding the advances there, is equal to the totality of the annual reproduction, and who the culture, the richnesses, the population remain in the same state, without nor deterioration increases. A different case would give, as one mentioned above, a different result. FORMULATE ECONOMIC TABLE Total reproduction: Five billion If the owners spent more with the productive class than with the sterile class, to improve their grounds and to increase their incomes, this additional expenditure employed to work of the productive class should be looked like an addition in advance of this class. The expenditure of the income is supposed here, in the state of prosprit' to also distribute itself between the productive class and the sterile class, with the place which the productive class carries only one third of its expenditure to the sterile class; because the expenditure of the farmer is less available than those of the owner; but the more agriculture languishes, then one must devote the expenditure available partly to him to restore it.

IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS FIRST OBSERVATION One should not confuse the expenditure made by the owners with the sterile class, and who are used for the subsistence of this class, with those that the owners make directly with the productive class by themselves, by their commensaux and by the animals which they nourish; because this expenditure which the owners with the productive class make can be more advantageous with agriculture than those which they do with the sterile class. Among the owners of the income, there is a great number of it who are extremely rich and who consume the productions of the most price; thus the mass of productions which they consume is in proportion much less considerable than that which is consumed in the other classes at low price. The men who spend the income and who buy so dearly, must thus be also with proportion much fewer compared to the sum of their purchases. But their expenditure supports the price of the productions of best quality, which maintains by gradation the handsome price the other productions, to the advantage of the incomes of the territory. It is not the same great expenditure as the owners can make with the sterile class; and it is what constitutes the difference of the ostentation of subsistence and the luxury of decoration. The effects of the first are not to fear like those of the other. That which buys a litre of wine of peas 100 pounds the pay with a farmer who employs them in expenditure of culture to the advantage of the annual reproduction. That which buys a gold galon 100 pounds pays it with a workman who employs a part of it to repurchase at the foreigner the raw material; there is only the other part employed in purchases for its subsistence, which turns over to the productive class, and this return even is not as advantageous as would have been to it the direct expenditure of the owner to the productive class; because the workman does not buy for his subsistence of the productions of high price and thus does not contribute, like makes the owner, to maintain the value and the incomes the good grounds which have the property to produce invaluable food products. As for what passed in purchases at the foreigner, if it returns to the productive class, as that arrives indeed, at least partly at the nations where there is reciprocity of trade of productions (6)it is always with the charge of the trade expenses which cause a reduction there, and prevent this return from being complete. SECOND OBSERVATION The expenditure of simple consumption is expenditure which vanishes themselves without return; they can be maintained only by the productive class, which, as for it, can be sufficed for itself, thus they must, when they are not employed with the reproduction, being not looked like sterile expenditure and even like vermin, or expenditure of luxury, if they are superfluous and prejudicial with agriculture. Most of the expenditure of the owners are at least sterile expenditure; one can about it exclude only those which they do for the conservation and the improvement of their goods and to increase the culture by it. But as they are of natural right in charge of the care of the control and

of the expenditure for repairs, their inheritance, they cannot be confused with the part of the population which forms the purely sterile class. THIRD OBSERVATION In the state of prosperity of a kingdom whose territory would be carried to its higher possible degree of culture, freedom and facilitation of trade, and where consequently the income of the owners could not increase any more those could spend about it half in purchases with the sterile class. But if the territory completely were not cultivated and were not improved if the ways missed, if there were rivers to return navigable and channels to be formed for the conveyance of the productions, they should be saved on their expenditure with the sterile class, to increase by the expenditure necessary their incomes and their pleasures as much as it would be possible. Until they had reached that point, their superfluous expenditure with the sterile class would be expenditure of luxury, prejudicial with their opulence and the prosperity of the nation; because all that is dsavantageux with agriculture is prejudicial with the nation and the State, and all that supports agriculture is advantageous in the State and the nation. It is the need for the expenditure which the owners alone can make for the increase in their richnesses and the good general of the company, which makes that the safety of the land and buildings is an essential condition of the natural order of the government of the empires. The feudal policy formerly considered these land and buildings like base of the military force of the lords, but it thought only of the property of the ground; from there so much of habits and so much of odd laws in the order of the successions of the goods melt, which still remain in spite of the changes arrived in monarchy, while one was if not very attentive with safety property of the movable richnesses necessary for the culture which can only put forward the goods melt. It was not seen enough that the true base of the military force of a kingdom is the prosperity even of the nation. Rome knew to overcome and subjugate many nations, but it did not know to control. It despoiled the richnesses of the agriculture of the countries subjected to its domination; consequently its military force disappeared, its conquests which had enriched it were removed to him; and it was delivered to itself without defense with the plundering and violences of the enemy. FOURTH OBSERVATION In the regular order that we follow here, all the sum of the purchases who are done annually by the owners and the sterile class returns annually to the productive class, to pay each year with the owners the income of two billion, and to pay him with itself the interests its primitive and annual advances. One could nothing withdraw from this distribution expenditure with the disadvantage of agriculture, nor nothing to withdraw resumptions of the farmer, by some exaction or some obstacles in the trade, which it did not arrive of deterioration in the annual reproduction of the richnesses of the nation and a reduction in population easy to show by calculation. Thus it is by the order of the distribution of the expenditure, according to whether they return or that they are withdrawn from the productive class, according to whether they increase its advances, or that

they decrease them according to whether they support or that they cause a drop in the price of the productions, that one can calculate the effects of good or bad conduct of a nation. The sterile class can spend for the subsistence of its agents only approximately half of the two billion which it receives, because other half are employed in purchases of raw materials for its works. Thus this class forms only approximately a quarter of the nation. We observed that on the resumptions of three billion the productive class, there is it a billion for the interests the primitive and annual advances this class, which is employed continuously with the repair of these advances, thus it remains with this class only approximately two billion for the expenditure its own immediate agents, which consequently are approximately the double of those that the sterile class, but each one with the assistance of the animals of work, given birth to there a reproduction which can make remain eight men, i.e. its family, which can be supposed of four people and another family of similar number of people belonging to the sterile class or with the class of the owners. If one wants to enter a more detailed examination of the distribution of the expenditure of a nation, one will find it in rural Philosophy chap. 7. It will be seen there that in addition to the five billion which forms the portion of the nation here, there is other expenditure: such are the trade expenses and the food of the animals of work employed with the culture. This expenditure is not included/understood in the distribution of the expenditure represented in the table, and being added to those they make assemble the total value of the annual reproduction to six billion three hundred and sixty ten million. But it is to be noticed in this respect the expenses commercial can increase with the disadvantage or decrease with the profit of the nation, according to whether this part is or is not directed contradictorily to the natural order. FIFTH OBSERVATION One supposed in the statement of expenditures that one has just exposed, that the nation trades only on itself; however, there is kingdom whose territory produces all the richnesses suitable for the pleasure of its inhabitants; so that one needs a foreign trade, by which a nation sells abroad part of its productions to buy from abroad those which it needs. However, as it cannot buy from abroad that as far as it sells abroad, the state of its expenditure must always be in conformity with the reproduction which reappears annually of its territory. Calculations of this expenditure even can clone being regularly established on the share of this reproduction, made abstraction of any foreign trade whose details are unspecified, incalculable and useless to seek, it is enough to pay attention that in the state of a free competition of foreign trade, there is only exchange of value for equal value, without loss nor profit of share or other. As for the expenses of conveyance, the nation and the foreigner pay them on both sides in their sales or their purchases; and they form for the tradesmen funds separate of that of the nation; because in the trade foreign of the agricultural nations, any trader is foreign relative with the interests of these nations. Thus an agricultural kingdom and tradesman join together two nations distinct one from the other: one forms the part constituent of the company attached to the territory, which provides the income, and the other is an extrinsic addition which belongs to the

general republic of the foreign trade, employed and defrayed by the agricultural nations. The expenses of this trade, though necessary, must be looked like an expensive expenditure, taken on the income of the owners of the grounds; thus they must be released from any monopoly and all overloads which would fall down disastrously on the incomes of the sovereigns and other owners. In the state of free competition of foreign trade, the prices which have course between the mercantile nations, must be the base of the calculation of the richnesses and the annual expenditure of the nations which have an easy trade and immune (7). The foreign trade is more or less wide according to the diversity of consumption of the inhabitants, and according to whether the productions of the country are more or less varied. The more the productions of a kingdom are varied, the less there are exports and imports, and the more the nation saves on the expenses the foreign trade which however must always extremely free, be removed from all embarrassments and free from all impositions, because it is only by the communication that it maintains between the nations, that one can constantly make sure in the domestic trade the best possible price of the productions of the territory, and the greatest possible income for the sovereign and the nation. SIXTH OBSERVATION One can see the same productions spending several times by the hands of the merchants and the craftsmen; but it should be paid attention that these repetitions of sales and purchases which multiply circulation unprofitably are only transposition of goods, and increase in expenses, without production of richnesses. The account of the productions is reduced clone to their quantity and the prices of their sales of the first hand. The more these prices are fixed with the natural order, and the higher they are constantly, also they are advantageous in the exchanges which one makes with the foreigner, more they animate agriculture (8), more they support the value of the various productions of the territory, more they increase the incomes of the sovereign and by the owners, also they increase the cash of the nation and the mass of the wages paid for the remuneration due to the work or the use of those who are not primitive owners of the productions. The use of these badly distributed wages well or, contributes much to the prosperity or the degradation of a kingdom, the regularity or the dissolute moral of a nation and to the increase or the reduction in population. The men can be obsessed in the campaigns and be attracted by the luxury and pleasure in the capital, or they can be also widespread in the provinces. In this last case they can maintain consumption close to the production; with the place that in the other case, they cannot avoid the great expenditure of cartages which make at low prices fall the productions in the sales with the first hand and decrease the incomes of the territory the mass of the wages and the population. The trade of retailer can extend according to the activity and faculties' from the tradesmen; but that of an agricultural nation is regulated by the annual reproduction of its territory. The profits in pure benefit of the rgnicoles tradesmen should not clone not merge with the richnesses of the nation; since those cannot extend annually beyond the flow from the annual reproduction from

its territory subjugated at the current prices from the sales from the first hand. The tradesman tends to buy at low the price and to resell at the most possible price, in order to extend his benefit more than it is possible at the expense of the nation: its particular interest and the interest of the nation is opposite. It is not however only the whole body of the tradesmen, and even as each member of this immense body does not have, by looking at the thing into large and in its true extent a very real interest so that the productions are constantly sold with the first hand the most price which it is possible; because the more they are sold at high price and the more the culture gives of product Net; the more the culture gives of product Net, and the more advantageous it is; the more advantageous the culture is and the more it extends from all shares, plus it makes reappear production, plus it provides recoveries for the farmers, of income for the sovereign, the owners, the dcimateurs, and of wages for all the other orders of citizens, plus the expenditure of any species multiply more the trade acquires objects, occasions and of activity, and consequently more the total sum of profits of the tradesmen increases by the effect even of the competition, which, in each particular circumstance prevents these profits from being excessive with the damage of the prices of the productions. But there are well few tradesmen who carry so far their glances, and even less which is able to sacrifice a profit present at the certainty of these great future advantages. Also are not this the tradesmen, but the needs for the consumers and the means which they have to satisfy there which originally ensure the prices of the productions the sale of the first hand. The traders do not give birth to the prices, nor the possibility of trade; but it is the possibility of the trade and the communication of the prices which gives birth to the traders (9). SEVENTH OBSERVATION We did not bet monnay money mass which circulates in the trade of each nation; and that the vulgar one looks like the true richness of the States, because with money one can buy, says one, all which one needs; but one does not wonder with what one can get money; however this richness is not given for nothing, it costs as far as it is worth with that which 1 ' bought. It is the trade which brings it to the nations which do not have gold mines or money, but these same nations would have neither gold nor money, if they did not have what to pay them, and they will always have some as far as they will want to buy some, or that it will be advisable to them to buy some, if they have productions to give in exchange. I say as much as it will agree to them to buy some; because the money is not the richness which the men need for their pleasure. They are the goods necessary to the life and the annual reproduction of these same goods as it is necessary to obtain. To convert productions into money to withdraw this money from the advantageous expenditure with agriculture, it would be to decrease by as much the annual reproduction of the richnesses. The money mass cannot increase in a nation that as much as this reproduction itself increases there, otherwise the increase in the money mass could be made only with the damage annual reproduction of the richnesses. However the waning of this reproduction would involve necessarily, and soon, that of the money mass and the impoverishment of the nation; with the place which the money mass can decrease in a nation without there being waning of the richnesses at this nation, because one can in many manners of compensating for the money when one is rich and that one has an easy and free trade; but nothing can compensate, without loss, with the defect of annual reproduction of the richnesses suitable for the pleasure of the men. One must even suppose that the savings of a poor

nation must be with proportion more considerable than that of a rich nation; because it them does not remain about it with the one and the other than the sum which they need for their sales and their purchases. However at the poor nations one needs much more mediation of 1 money in the trade; it is necessary to pay there cash, because one can y proud with the promise of almost nobody. But at the rich nations, there are many men known for rich person, and whose written promise is looked like very sure and guaranteed well by their richnesses, so that all the considerable sales are done there with credit, i.e. via valid papers which compensate for the money and facilitate much the trade. It is thus not by more or less of money that one must judge opulence of the States; as it is estimated as savings equal to the income of the owners of the grounds, is much more as sufficient for an agricultural nation where circulation is done regularly, and where the trade is exerted with confidence and a full freedom (10). As for the widespread universal commercial republic in the various countries, and as for the small purely commercial nations which are only parts of this immense republic, and which can be looked like the capital cities, or, if one wants, like the principal counters, the mass of their monnay money is proportioned with extended from their trade of resale; they increase this mass as far as they can by their profits and their saving, to increase the funds of their trade; the money is their own inheritance; the tradesmen employ it in their purchases only to withdraw it with benefit in their sales. They can thus increase their savings only at the expense of the nations with which they trade; it is always holds some between their hands; it does not leave their counters and only circulates to return there with increase; thus this money cannot belong to the richnesses of the agricultural nations always limited to their reproduction, on which they pay the profits of the tradesmen continuously. Those, in some country that that is to say their dwelling, are related to various nations by their trade, it is their trade even which is their fatherland and the deposit of their richnesses; they buy and sell where they reside and where they do not reside; the extent of the exercise of the profession does not have given limits and not a particular territory. Our tradesmen are also the tradesmen of the other nations; the tradesmen of the other nations are also our tradesmen; and all and sundry also trade between them; thus the communication of their trade penetrates and extends everywhere, while aiming always finally towards the money, that the trade itself brings and distributes in the nations in accordance with the prices fixed to the natural order which daily regulates the monetary values of the productions. But the agricultural nations have another point of view, more useful for them and wider, they should tend only to the greatest possible reproduction to increase and perpetuate the richnesses suitable for the pleasure of the men; the money is for them only one small intermediate richness which disappears in one moment without the reproduction. NOTES (1) The extent of the territory would be approximately 130 million arpents of grounds of various qualities; the funds of richnesses of exploitation necessary to hold this territory in good value, would be approximately twelve billion, and the population of approximately thirty million people who could remain with ease, in accordance with their state, of the annual product of five billion. But one should not forget only everywhere where the population enjoys a peaceful life, it usually increases beyond the product of the territory, also the force of a State and the number of the

citizens who make it up, are always assured when they are established on funds of richnesses of exploitation sufficient for the maintenance with a rich person culture. The conservation of this funds of richness of exploitation must be the main object of the economic government; because the incomes of the sovereign and the nation entirely depend on it, as it will be shown by the exposure of the regular order of the distribution of the expenditure paid and maintained by the annual reproduction. (2) The annual advances consist in the expenditure which is done annually for the work of the culture; these advances must be distinguished from the primitive advances, which form the bottom of the establishment of the culture, and which are worth approximately five times more than the annual advances. (3) It is to be noticed that one does not include/understand in this evaluation the tax who rises on said leased. By adding it to this calculation, one will see that the two-seventh which form the share of the sovereign, would give him without degradation approximately 650 million annual tax. (4) If there were goods melt free of the contribution of the tax it should be only in consideration of some advantages for the good of the State, and then that should be counted like belonging to the public revenue; also of such exemptions must take place only for good reason. (5) Each nap which the productive class and the sterile class receivesuppose une double valeur, parce qu'il y a vente et achat, et par consquent la valeur de ce qui est vendu et la valeur de la somme qui paye l'achat; mais il n'y a de consommation relle que pour la valeur des cinq milliards qui forment le total de la recette de la classe productive. Les sommes d'argent qui passent chaque classe s'y distribuent par la circulation d'une somme totale d'argent qui recommence chaque anne la mme circulation. Cette somme d'argent peut tre suppose plus ou moins grande dans sa totalit, et la circulation plus ou moins rapide; car la rapidit de la circulation de l'argent peut suppler en grande partie la quantit de la masse d'argent. Dans une anne, par exemple, o, sans qu'il y et de diminution dans la reproduction, il y aurait une grande augmentation du prix des productions, soit par des facilits donnes au commerce ou autrement; il ne serait pas ncessaire qu'il y et augmentation de la masse pcuniaire pour le paiement des achats de ces productions. Cependant il passerait dans les mains des acheteurs et des vendeurs de plus grosses sommes d'argent qui feraient croire la plupart que la masse d'argent monnay serait fort augmente dans le royaume. Aussi cette apparence quivalente la ralit est-elle fort mystrieuse pour le vulgaire. (6) Ce qui n'est pas ordinaire dans le commerce des Indes orientales; si ce n'est lorsqu'il se fait par des commerants trangers qui nous vendent ce qu'ils y ont achet, et qui emploient chez nous, en achats de productions, l'argent mme avec lequel nous avons pay leurs marchandises des Indes. Mais il n'en est pas de mme lorsque ce commerce se fait par nos commerants rgnicoles, dont le trafic se borne entre nous et les Indiens orientaux qui ne veulent que de l'argent. (7) C'est--dire exempt de toutes contributions fiscales, seigneuriales, etc., de monopoles, d'appointements d'inspecteurs et d'autres officiers inutiles. Le commerce, comme l'agriculture,

ne doit avoir d'autre gouvernement que l'ordre naturel. Dans tout acte de commerce, il y a le vendeur et l'acheteur qui stipulent contradictoirement et librement leurs intrts; et leurs intrts ainsi rgls par eux-mmes, qui en sont seuls juges comptents, se trouvent conformes l'intrt public; toute entremise d'officiers revtus d'autorit, y est trangre, et d'autant plus dangereuse qu'on y doit craindre l'ignorance et des motifs encore plus redoutables. Le monopole dans le commerce et dans l'agriculture n'a que trop souvent trouv des protecteurs; la plantation des vignes, la vente des eaux-de-vie de cidre, la libert du commerce des grains, l'entre des marchandises de main-d'oeuvre trangres, ont t prohibes; les manufactures du royaume ont obtenu des privilges exclusifs au prjudice les unes des autres; on a contraint les entrepreneurs des manufactures employer des matires premires trangres l'exclusion de celles du pays, etc.; de fausses lueurs ont brill dans l'obscurit, et l'ordre naturel a t interverti par des intrts particuliers toujours cachs et toujours sollicitant sous le voile du bien gnral. (8) L'intrt du cultivateur est le premier ressort de toutes les oprations conomiques et de tous les succs de l'agriculture; plus les productions sont constamment haut prix, plus le retour annuel des reprises des fermiers est assur, plus la culture s'accrot, et plus les terres rapportent de revenu, tant par le bon prix des productions, que par l'augmentation de la reproduction annuelle; plus la reproduction s'accrot, plus les richesses de la nation se multiplient, et plus la puissance de l'tat augmente. (9) Il en est de ceux-ci comme de la corde d'un puits et de l'usage qu'on en fait qui ne sont point la source de l'eau qui est dans le puits; tandis qu'au contraire c'est l'eau qui est dans le puits, jointe la connaissance et au besoin qu'on en a, qui est la cause de l'usage qu'on fait de la corde. Les hommes clairs ne confondent pas les causes avec les moyens. (10) On remarque que le pcule d'Angleterre reste fix peu prs cette proportion, qui, dans l'tat prsent de ses richesses, le soutient environ 26 millions sterlings, ou 11 millions de marcs d'argent. Cette richesse en argent ne doit pas en imposer dans un pays ou le commerce de revente et de voiturage domine, et o il faut distinguer le pcule des commerants de celui de la nation. Ces deux parties n'ont rien de commun; si ce n'est qu'autant que les commerants veulent bien vendre intrt leur argent la nation qui a fond ses forces militaires sur les emprunts, ce qui n'est pas une preuve de la puissance relle d'un Etat. Si cette nation s'est trouve expose par ses guerres des besoins pressants, des emprunts excessifs, ce n'tait pas par le dfaut de l'argent, c'tait par les dpenses qui excdaient le revenu public. Plus les emprunts supplent aux revenus, plus les revenus se trouvent surchargs par les dettes; et la nation se ruinerait, si la source mme des revenus en souffrait un dprissement progressif, qui diminut la reproduction, annuelle des richesses. C'est sous ce point de vue qu'il faut envisager l'tat des nations, c'est car par les revenus du territoire qu'il faut juger de la prosprit et de la puissance relle d'un empire. Le pcule est toujours renaissant dans une nation o les richesses se renouvellent continuellement et sans dprissement. Pendant prs d'un sicle, c'est--dire, depuis 1444 jusqu' 1525, il y a eu en Europe une grande diminution dans la quantit de l'argent comme on peut en juger par le prix des marchandises en ce temps-l; mais cette moindre quantit de pcule tait indiffrente aux nations, parce que la valeur vnale de cette richesse tait la mme partout, et que, par rapport l'argent, leur tat tait le mme relativement leurs revenus qui taient partout galement mesurs par la valeur

uniforme de l'argent. Dans ce cas, il vaut mieux, pour la commodit des hommes, que ce soit la valeur qui supple la masse, que si la masse supplait la valeur. Il n'est pas douteux que la dcouverte de l'Amrique a procur en Europe une plus grande abondance d'or et d'argent, cependant leur valeur avait commenc baisser trs sensiblement par rapport aux marchandises, avant l'arrive de l'or et de l'argent de l'Amrique en Europe. Mais toutes ces varits gnrales ne changent rien l'tat du pcule de chaque nation, qui se proportionne toujours aux revenus des biens-fonds, abstraction faite de celui qui fait partie du fonds du commerce extrieur des ngociants, et qui circule entre les nations, comme celui d'une nation circule entre les provinces du mme royaume Le pcule de ces ngociants circule aussi entre la mtropole et ses colonies, ordinairement sans y accrotre les richesses de part ni d'autre; quelque fois mme en les diminuant beaucoup, surtout lorsqu'il y a exclusion de la concurrence des commerants de tout pays. Dans ce cas le monopole accrot le pcule des commerants sur la mtropole et sur les colonies et diminue celui des colonies et de leur mtropole. Celle-ci nanmoins oublie que les ngociants ne lui donnent pas leur argent pour rien, et qu'ils lui revendent au contraire toute sa valeur cet argent qu'ils ont gagn ses dpens. Elle se laisse persuader que comme ses ngociants sont nationaux, c'est elle-mme qui profite du monopole qu'on exerce sur elle et sur ses colonies, et qui diminue leurs richesses et le prix des productions de son propre territoire. Ces ides perverses et absurdes ont caus depuis quelques sicles un grand dsordre en Europe. Dans le sicle prcdent, sous Louis XIV, le marc d'argent monnay valait 28 livres. Ainsi 18.600.000 marcs d'argent valaient alors environ 500 millions. C'tait peu prs l'tat du pcule de la France dans ce temps oit le royaume tait beaucoup plus riche que sur la fin du rgne de ce monarque. En 1716, la refonte gnrale des espces ne monta pas 400 millions; le marc d'argent monnay tait 43 livres 12 sols; ainsi la masse des espces de cette refonte ne montait pas neuf millions de marcs; c'tait plus de moiti moins que dans les refontes gnrales de 1683 et 1693. Cette masse de pcule n'aura pu augmenter par les fabrications annuelles d'espces, qu'autant que le revenu de la nation aura augment. Quelque considrable que soit le total de ces fabrications annuelles depuis cette refonte, il aura moins servi augmenter la masse d'argent monnay, qu' rparer ce qui en est enlev annuellement par la contrebande, par les diverses branches de commerce passif, et par d'autres emplois de l'argent chez l'tranger; car depuis cinquante ans, le total de ces transmissions annuelles bien calcul, se trouverait fort considrable. L'augmentation du numraire qui est fixe depuis longtemps 54 livres, ne prouve pas que la quantit du pcule de la nation ait beaucoup augment; puisqu'augmenter le numraire c'est tcher de suppler la ralit par la dnomination. Ces observations, il est vrai, sont peu conformes aux opinions du vulgaire sur la quantit d'argent monnay d'une nation. Le peuple croit que c'est dans l'argent que consiste la richesse d'un tat; mais l'argent, comme toutes les autres productions, n'est richesse qu' raison de sa valeur vnale, et n'est pas plus difficile acqurir que toute autre marchandises, en le payant par d'autres richesses. Sa quantit dans un tat y est borne son usage, qui, y est rgl par les

ventes et les achats que fait la nation dans ses dpenses annuelles; et les dpenses annuelles de la nation sont rgles par les revenus. Une nation ne doit donc avoir d'argent monnay qu' raison de ses revenus; une plus grande quantit lui serait inutile; elle en changerait le superflu avec les autres nations, pour d'autres richesses qui lui seraient plus avantageuses ou plus satisfaisantes; car les possesseurs de l'argent, mme les plus conomes, sont toujours attentifs en retirer quelque profit. Si on trouve le prter dans le pays un haut intrt, c'est urne preuve qu'il n'y est tout au plus que dans la proportion que nous avons observe, puisqu'on en paye l'usage ou le besoin si