This ambitious book explores the heyday of French political economy, covering the period 1695-1914 - symbolically starting with Boisguilbert's first publication and closing with the First World War. This first volume deals with the history of political economy in France in the Age of Enlightenment.

Gilbert Faccarello is Emeritus Professor at Panthéon-Assas University, France. He is a co-founder of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought and co-editor of the Routledge Historical Resources site devoted to the History of Economic Thought.

Claire Silvant is Associate Professor of Economics at the Université Lumière, France, and a member of the research centre Triangle (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). She also was in charge of a research programme on the history of public economics sponsored by the European Society for the History of Economic Thought.

Foreword Gilbert Faccarello and Claire Silvant 1. Prelude. From Scholasticism to the Enlightenment Thierry Demals & Gilbert Faccarello 2. Pierre de Boisguilbert and the foundation of 'Laissez-faire' Gilbert Faccarello 3. John Law and the Mississippi System Antoin E. Murphy 4. Science of trade and 'commerce politique' Thierry Demals 5. François Quesnay and Physiocracy Thierry Demals & Philippe Steiner 6. Turgot, Graslin and sensationist political economy Gilbert Faccarello 7. Political critiques of political economy Arnaud Orain 8. The spirit of geometry. Quantification and formalisation Gilbert Faccarello 9. Postlude. Intellectual exchanges and last developments Gilbert Faccarello