ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 25 



the first great comprehensive synthesis in economics, and though the 

 structure they erected was airy and fantastic, it served as a model 

 for later generations beyond what has ordinarily been admitted. 

 Many a later thinker is of closer kin to them than he would be willing 

 to acknowledge. 



Until the Physiocrats entered the field, economics was habitually 

 treated as an art, the chief concern of which was to formulate max- 

 ims of public policy. With the Physiocrats the study takes a new 

 direction, or what to all appearances is to be rated as a new direction. 

 They set out to discover the natural laws of wealth, though to the 

 Physiocrats natural law means something different from the em- 

 pirical generalizations of later science. Theirs is a metaphysical 

 conception of natural law and theirs is the metaphysics of the 

 order-of-nature. Starting from this as their central position, they 

 work outwards to the laws of society. The natural order of society 

 is to them a simple deduction from the physical order of the universe, 

 and the natural laws of society are simply the laws of the physical 

 order applied to social relations. Therefore, the Physiocrats address 

 themselves to a careful scrutiny of nature's processes and purposes. 

 As they conceive the matter, it is the ceaseless exchange of matter and 

 force between nature and man that makes up the natural life of 

 society. That exchange is the phenomenon to be explained, and the 

 order-of-nature explains it. The ultimate term of the Physiocratic 

 formulation of economic truth is, therefore, the order of nature. The 

 habitual effort to reduce all things to terms of nature is the char- 

 acteristic and dominant feature of their thinking. 



To the Physiocrat, the course of human events is under the guid- 

 ance of nature. Nature is invested with a teleological propensity, 

 working always for the physical welfare of man. She can, however, 

 be hindered or even thwarted, not only can be, but has been. But 

 as soon as men cease the infractions of her discipline, the natural 

 course is resumed. In the end, nature always has her way, and her 

 way is the best possible way, for she is the interpreter of the Supreme 

 Legislator whose laws are intended to secure the welfare of man. 



Such is the Physiocratic view of the order of nature. Starting 

 with this conception, they set about to formulate the laws of wealth, 

 the aim being to construe the economic process in terms of the 

 natural order. And since the great enterprise in which nature is 

 engaged is the support and perpetuation of human life, it follows that 

 the supreme test of economic reality is the relation of any industrial 

 function to this nutritive function of nature. Man's work is to be 

 rated as efficient or otherwise according as it helps or hinders the con- 

 summations of nature's substantial end. Thus in the Physiocratic 

 analysis the interest centers chiefly in production, and their economy 

 is, therefore, mainly a theory of production. Specifically the test of 



