Which economist is associated with the Physiocracy school?

• A. François Quesnay
• B. Pierre Samuel du Pont
• C. Adam Smith
• D. Mercantilism

Answer: (B)

Physiocracy centers on the idea that wealth comes from productive land and that economic policy should follow nature’s order, with agriculture as the true source of national wealth. The economist most closely associated with this school is François Quesnay, who founded physiocracy and is famous for the Tableau Économique, a diagrammatic model showing how agricultural output circulates and flows into other sectors. He argued that government should largely leave the natural order to operate, opposing heavy mercantilist restrictions.

Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours is connected to the physiocrat movement as a later advocate, helping spread its ideas, but the central figure most identified with the school’s principles and its theoretical framework remains François Quesnay. Adam Smith is tied to classical economics and the idea of free markets more broadly, while Mercantilism describes an economic doctrine rather than a single economist.