Abstract
When discussing the formation or emergence of French economics, studies tend to focus almost exclusively on the 18th century. Throughout this century, debates on luxury and population unfolded extensively, and intellectual discussions concerning the notion of self-interest and commercial society were considerably refined. Undeniably, François Quesnay’s monumental work, the Tableau Économique, also revealed the autonomous mechanism of the circulation and reproduction of wealth. However, these discourses of the Enlightenment were built upon the political and economic thought that accumulated during the 16th and 17th centuries.
While introducing some important recently published scholarly works, this paper examines the intellectual landscape prior to the 18th century, particularly the currents of political and economic thought in the 16th and 17th centuries, which tend to be overlooked in the French history of economic thought. This study reveals how the anti-Machiavellian writings on the education of princes played a significant role in shaping economics, how perspectives and debates often thought to be unique to the 18th century had already emerged in the preceding century, and how the physiocratic idea of agriculture as “true wealth” was not necessarily their exclusive domain.
This paper begins by reviewing Cecilia Carnino’s book on Conseiller d’Estat and Ryan Patrick Hanley’s study of Fénelon’s political and economic thought. It then concludes by briefly surveying recent research trends concerning the influence of 16th- and 17th-century discourses, including arbitrary or distorted interpretations, on 18th-century French political economy, such as the physiocratic school.
https://ror.org/00x194q47 
