A Note on the Early Versions of the Tableau économique

Abstract

This article uses materials that have been recently discovered as well as completely new documents, in particular a previously missing copy of the first printed edition of the Tableau économique that the authors found in the French National Archives and that they reproduce here in the appendix of the article. The authors combine these new sources of information with a close reading of materials—in particular the two letters sent by Quesnay to Mirabeau when he worked on the first two versions of the Tableau to provide a largely revised chronology of the conception and circulation of the three early versions of the Tableau. One of the points the authors make is that Madame de Pailly, Mirabeau's lover, acted as a go-between for the two men at that time and was instrumental in convincing Quesnay to share the Tableau with the marquis and to publish it in the sequel of the latter's best seller, L'Ami des hommes.