for
- definition - physiocrats - Steve Keen
- economy - history - economic flow as biomimicry of body's circulation system
definition - physiocrat
- During the 18th and 19th century, a group of mostly French "economists" led by Francois Quesnay, physician to the King of France at the time, performed some of the first autopsies of the time.
- Autopsies were banned for the longest time for religious reasons
- When Quesnay performed autopsies, he discovered networks of tubes in the circulation system and this led him to surmise a network of circulation in another field, economics
- Quesnay advised the king, hence the name physiocrat
- So modern economics has its roots in biology - it was a case of biomimicry!