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School of Thought: Pre-Smithian Economists
Subject Area: Economics

Note A - Henry Higgs, The Physiocrats: Six Lectures on the French Economistes of the 18th Century [1897]

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The Physiocrats: Six Lectures on the French Economistes of the 18th Century (London: Macmillan and Co., 1897).

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Note A

Louis XV., who himself chose Quesnay's arms and gave him three pansies (pensées) with the motto propter cogitationem mentis, was accustomed to refer familiarly to him as mon penseur. But, to say nothing of the dates, these facts do not justify us in assuming that the roi fainéant took any interest in Quesnay's economic studies. The phrase mon penseur appears to the present writer to be a mere royal pun upon his pensive physician. The French verb panser, to give medical (and especially surgical) assistance, lent itself to a play upon penser. On one occasion the king turned to a young seigneur who had returned from England with an affectation of British phlegm, and playfully asked, “Eh bien! qu'est-ce que vous avez appris en Angleterre ?” “Sire,” was the pompous reply, “j'y ai appris à penser.” “Des chevaux sans doutes” added the king—a parallel jest. This form of wit was very common at the Court of Louis XV. A blood-letting barber was styled le seigneur (saigneur) barbier.