Contents

List of contributors to the two volumes vi

Preface xi

1 Prelude: from scholasticism to the Enlightenment 1

THIERRY DEMALS AND GILBERT FACCARELLO

2 Pierre de Boisguilbert and the foundations of laissez-faire 31

GILBERT FACCARELLO

3 John Law and the Mississippi System 45

ANTOIN E.

4 Science of trade and “commerce politique” 60

THIERRY DEMALS

5 Franςois Quesnay and Physiocracy 86

THIERRY DEMALS AND PHILIPPE STEINER

6 Turgot, Graslin and sensationist political economy 117

GILBERT FACCARELLO

7 Political critiques of political economy 156

ARNAUD ORAIN

8 The spirit of geometry: quantification and formalisation 172

GILBERT FACCARELLO

9 Postlude: intellectual exchanges and last developments 239

GILBERT FACCARELLO

Index

272