What does physiocracy mean?
Physiocracy is an eighteenth-century doctrine of political economy that regarded agriculture and the natural productivity of land as the foundation of national wealth. Its followers maintained that economic activity should accord with what they called the natural order, and they often promoted reforms such as a single land tax, free trade in agricultural goods, and reduced regulation of the grain market. The most influential advocates were French thinkers associated with François Quesnay, and their ideas contributed to the wider reformist intellectual culture of the late Enlightenment. Physiocracy is not usually classified simply as an early form of laissez-faire, although the two traditions overlapped in their skepticism toward state intervention and commercial monopolies. Today, the word is mainly historical. It can also describe a hypothetical social order based on farming, the countryside, and the supposed preferences of nature, sometimes with a slightly nostalgic or critical implication. Understanding the term clarifies the agrarian phase of economic thought that preceded modern industrial capitalism.
nounAn 18th-century economic theory holding that land and agriculture were the principal sources of wealth and that government should follow natural economic laws. The doctrine influenced the thinking of French physiocrats such as François Quesnay.
- An economic doctrine advocating natural economic order, especially the primacy of agriculture and land.
- A political or social system conceived as governed according to natural laws, especially the interests of farmers and landowners.
"The policies of the French Revolution initially reflected the influence of physiocracy on the revolutionaries."
"François Quesnay developed a version of physiocracy that challenged the mercantilist policies of eighteenth-century France."
"The essayist depicted a rural society influenced by the economic assumptions of physiocracy."
The plural is grammatical but rarely used, since the word usually refers to a single historical doctrine.
"Historians have compared physiocracies in France and in the American republic."
Physiocracy proposed that nature held the key to wealth: its followers argued that productive land, not manufacturing or commerce, should shape economic policy.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of physiocracy
Physiocracy was formed in French in the eighteenth century from physiocratie, a combination of Greek physis, meaning “nature,” and kratos, meaning “power” or “rule.” It was borrowed into English during the period when physiocratic ideas were widely debated in France. Its semantic relatives include physical, physic, physics, and physiocrat, all associated with the Greek tradition of studying nature.
Related word forms
How physiocracy is actually used
Now chiefly a historical term. It is usually encountered in discussions of eighteenth-century political economy and is sometimes used comparatively to describe an idealized agricultural order.