LE MERCIER DE LA RIVIERE, Pierre Paul.

£3,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

L'Ordre naturel et essentiel des Sociétés Politiques. First edition by "the ablest expositor of this [i.e. Physiocratic] system" (McCulloch), written following Le Mercier's retirement from Parliament in 1759. Praised by Adam Smith and Diderot amongst others, L'Ordre naturel was, according to Palgrave, considered more highly than De l'Esprit des loix by some of Le Mercier's contemporaries.The author argues that there is a natural law of property which is based on the physical order of nature, and which underlies all other laws. Taxation and the use of public revenue by the ruler are both governed by the natural law of property. Schumpeter lists this work as the second textbook of Physiocrat orthodoxy (the first being Mirabeau's Philosophie rurale).

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