The Comparison Of Physiocrates And Chinese Ancient Agriculture Priority Ideas

In the middle of the 1800s, Physiocrates appeared when French economy was in danger because of the failure of mercantilism. The representatives, Francois Quesnay and A. R. J. Turgot, advocated to give up the theory of mercantilism and develop agriculture to recover French economy. They thought agriculture was the only department that could produce surplus value. Based on pure product theory, Physiocrates is a logistic theory system composed of natural order theory, social class theory and capital theory.The ideas of Physiocrates were actually enlightened by Chinese ancient agriculture priority ideas that appeared more than 2000 years earlier than Physiocrates. The ideas of many Chinese ancient agriculture priority thinkers were same in agriculture. They thought agriculture was the root of feudal economy, the basic department to satisfy the need of human beings and the premise of other departments, so agriculture was the foundation of national economy. Agriculture was also related with people's common life and national stability as it was the premise to protect feudal rulers' interest and position.Physiocrates and Chinese ancient agriculture priority ideas were the same in the importance of agriculture and agriculture priority. Secondly, the ideas of Chinese ancient thinker Xun Kuang and pure product theory of Physiocrates thought agriculture was the only power in economic growth. Finally, the way to divide social class was similar both in Chinese ancient agriculture priority ideas and Physiocrates. However, there were some differences between them because of the differences in the history background and class interest, such as the detailed measures to develop agriculture. Physiocrates were a complete theory system but Chinese ancient agriculture priority ideas were just a primary thought system.After the comparison of Physiocrates and Chinese ancient agriculture priority ideas, we can solve the "three problems" on Chinese agriculture by their useful theories and suggestion. Measures should be taken to realize the importance of agriculture, improve the quality of peasants, increase the agricultural investment, promote the industrialized operation of agriculture, lighten the burden on peasants and so on. We should do our best to increase peasants' income, develop agriculture and richen rural areas.