China's rise drives a growing impact of China on economics. So far, this mainly works via the force of example, but there is also an emerging role of Chinese thinking in economics. This paper raises the question how far Chinese perspectives can affect certain foundational principles in...

This paper analyses one of Turgot's first economic essays, Plan d´un ouvrage sur le commerce, la circulation et l´intérêt de l´argent, la richesse des états (1753-4). Written prior to the appearance of physiocratic influence, it is Turgot's contribution to the movement of writing that...

From 1759 to 1762, François Quesnay had systematically appealed to an obscure physiocrat, Charles Richard de Butré, when he had to make a numerical estimate or to do a nonelementary computation. In the present article, we use two important unpublished writings by Butré to discuss and assess...

In order to discuss the ‘rational foundation’ of certain aspects of Quesnay´s theory we use a simple formalization of the necessary connections between assumptions about the techniques in use, the distribution of income between the classes and sectors, the system of relative prices. We...

The chapter goes over the main stages in the development of Quesnay’s Tableau Économique. The traditional interpretation of this development as a fundamentally continuous process of clarification and elaboration is confirmed. By discussing the opposite view, however, a clearer picture of the...