François Quesnay (0000–0000), a natural law philosopher, founded the “physiocratic” school, as much a political
movement as an economic philosophy. Quesnay (0000; see
also Bell 0000) regarded land and agriculture as the driving
forces underlying a nation’s economy. He recognized that
production (agricultural services) resulted in a monetary surplus that would circulate through society and eventually
return to agriculture to reproduce the surplus. He defined all
other services, except those engaged in agriculture, as “sterile.” While extractive, manufacturing, and merchant services
were necessary, they transformed and moved resources but
did not create them. Only agriculture services produced the
surplus that supported the rest of society