Quesnay, François (fräNswä` kĕnā`), 1694–1774, French economist, founder of the physiocratic school. A physician to Louis XV, he did not begin his economic studies until 1756, when he wrote the articles "Fermiers" [farmers] and "Grains" for the Encyclopédie. His chief work was the Tableau économique [economic table] (1758), said to have been printed by the king's own hands. Quesnay and his followers believed that the Tableau summed up the natural law of economy. Quesnay and the other physiocrats physiocrats (fĭz`ēəkrăts'), school of French thinkers in the 18th cent. who evolved the first complete system of economics.
..... Click the link for more information. greatly influenced the thought of Adam Smith. Quesnay's works have been collected in Œuvres économiques et philosophiques (with biographical studies and introduction, 1888).

Quesnay, François

(born June 4, 1694, near Paris, France—died Dec. 16, 1774, Versailles) French physician and economist. He served as consulting physician to Louis XV at Versailles, where he developed an interest in economics. In his Tableau économique (1758), he described the relationship between the different economic classes of society and the flow of payments among them, and he developed the concept of economic equilibrium used by many later economic analysts. An advocate of laissez-faire economic policy, he became the intellectual leader of the physiocrat, the first systematic school of political economy.