This paper proposes a new reading of the sources to release a new dating for entering Lemercier de la Rivière in intellectual circles of Quesnay and Mirabeau. In doing so, this Physiocrat generally accepted by commentators as a secondary author of the school led by Quesnay, appears as one of...

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.

Interpretations of David Ricardo's (and Adam Smith's) tax theory are presently dominated by an Anglo-Saxon perspective, though French physiocrats also played a role in its formation. Recent studies on economic thought often include a look at the historical precedents of a theory. This has given...