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Rare first edition. "In 1763 appeared the Philosophie rurale... which presents perhaps the most complete and magisterial account of the views of the Physiocratic school" (Higgs). "Quesnay collaborated very substantially in preparing this last major work, contributing the final chapter with further explanations and manipulations of his Tableau Économique analysis" (The New Palgrave). Schumpeter calls the work "the first of the four textbooks of physiocrat orthodoxy" (p. 225). It contains, for the first time, Quesnay's masterful explanation of his Tableau Économique, "one of those works in the history of economics which have often been regarded as an anticipation of modern theories" (Schumpeter, p. 242). Originally printed as a pamphlet of 16 pages in 1758 in a minute number of copies, Quesnay's Tableau Économique was first revealed to the public as the final part of Mirabeau's L'Ami des Hommes, in 1760. In the Philosophie rurale, Quesnay for the first time gives a full explanation of his system. The tableau économique is credited as the "first precise formulation" of interdependent systems in economics and the origin of the theory of the multiplier in economics. An analogous table is used in the theory of money creation under fractional-reserve banking by relending of deposits, leading to the money multiplier. In a letter to Mirabeau written late in 1758 Quesnay remarks "J'ai taché de faire un tableau fondamental de l'ordre économique pour y représenter les dépenses et les produits sous un aspect facile à saisir et pour juger clairment des arrangemens et des dérangemens que le gouvernement peut y causer." "A most remarkable analysis of the economic condition of his country" (Palgrave), the Tableau économique "is the most important and famous work of Physiocracy and has often been regarded as a summary of the entire corpus of Physiocratic economics... The Tableau has also been regarded as the analytical synthesis of the logical structure of Quesnay's economics, or at least as its most relevant aspect... The Tableau économique is one of those works in the history of economics which have often been regarded as an anticipation of modern theories. The Tableau has been considered a first rough presentation of Keynes's multiplier and as a sort of general equilibrium system of a Walrasian type... For others, the Tableau is an input-output table... Because of the Tableau, Quesnay has been regarded as an early econometrician. The Tableau has also been interpreted as the first classical system of price determination, thus anticipating Marx's reproduction schemes and Sraffa's price system." (Giovanni Vaggi in The New Palgrave). A contemporary owner has carefully and painstakingly compiled a 138-page alphabetically ordered subject index which is bound at the end of the volume. Frustratingly, there is no indication of provenance to the volume apart from the classification note to the title, but given the generous margins and the gilt edges, this copy must have once been in a fine library. READ MORE Quarto (250 x 192 mm). Contemporary mottled calf, rebacked, triple gilt rule border to covers, spine decorated gilt in compartments, red morocco label, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Woodcut printer's device on title and vignette to the first leaf of text. 3 engraved plates of the Tableau Économique and tables in the text. 138-page manuscript index at the end. Manuscript note to title "Agric. No. 225." Neatly rebacked preserving the original spine panels, and corners repaired, some surface crackling to boards, still sound; very occasional light spotting, pale dampmark to lower margin of a couple of gatherings; a very good copy with generous margins. Goldsmiths' 9836; Higgs 2881; INED 3204; Kress 6120; Mattioli 2435.