Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka de ideologiska motiven bakom frisläppandet av spannmålshandeln 1775 och 1780. Utgångspunkten är det funktionalistiska synssättet med handlingsaxiom inom det praxeologiska läran som komplement för att undersöka individernas situation. Tillvägagångssättet blir att undersöka böndernas och statens ekonomiska situation och syn på marknaden före och efter tidigare nämnda årtal.    Under tidiga 1700-talet var Sverige ett samhälle med starkt statlig kontroll av marknaden med inrikes tullar, premier och fördelar för vissa personer i samhället. Samtidigt under upplysningstiden träder tänkare som Adam Smith, Anders Chydenius och även fysiokrater fram och hävdar att en fri marknad skulle vara till fördel för både landet och individerna, något som Johan Liljencrantz delvis var influerad av. Resultatet av denna uppsats visar att upplysningstiden och fysiokratism låg bakom frisläppandet av spannmålshandeln då fokus centrerades till bondens positiva ekonomiska utveckling. / The main purpose in this essay is to research the ideological motives behind the extrication of the grain trade in 1775 and 1780. To do this research I have to see the Swedish state and farmers economic situation before 1775 and after 1775, but also what time Liljencrantz lived in and how relevant the time was to the reform. The starting point for this essay is using the functionalism analysis with action axiom of praxeology in mind to see the relationship between the state and the individual.    During the early 18th century, Sweden had a mercantile system where the industry had to be protected with high tariffs and a strong nobility owning them. During the enlightenment thinkers like Adam Smith, Anders Chydenius and to some extent physiocrats sought a society with free market that would have the result of more wealth, to the nation as well as to the citizen. The result of this essay is that Liljencrantz reform were the causes of his time and political view, the time of enlightenment and physiocracy to make the farmer more free and prosperous. It was also the start of the more liberal economy that would dominate the Swedish society in the 1800 hundreds.

Au siècle des Lumières, la physiocratie constitue un paradigme attractif qui propose un modèle universel et original de réforme de la société d’Ancien Régime. À compter des années 1760, les idées portées par cette doctrine politique, économique et juridique circulent à travers tout le continent européen et sont accueillies avec plus ou moins d’attention par les souverains et les élites éclairées. Les propositions du mouvement emportent l’adhésion de certains grands d’Europe et suscitent l’enthousiasme de nombre d’intellectuels, diplomates et administrateurs étrangers. Ouverts à l’esprit du temps, plusieurs monarques et ministres de haut rang décident de recourir à la physiocratie dans le cadre de leurs réformes du droit commercial, de la fiscalité, de l’organisation du travail, de l’agriculture, de l’administration territoriale ou de l’instruction publique. De même, la théorie du despotisme légal conjuguée au triptyque jusnaturaliste « liberté, propriété, sûreté » offre un modèle propice à la régénération de l’État et à la reconnaissance des droits fondamentaux. Or, dans d’autres contrées européennes, la physiocratie est reçue avec scepticisme ou indifférence par certains princes, ministres ou penseurs souvent proches du pouvoir. Bien qu’en quête de solutions réformatrices, ces gouvernants ne recourent alors qu’avec parcimonie aux préceptes de l’école, quand ils ne les rejettent pas purement et simplement au prétexte de leurs effets pernicieux pour l’ordre social traditionnel. / During the Age of the Enlightenment, physiocracy established an attractive paradigm which proposed an original and universal model of reform of society under the Ancien Régime. From the 1760s onwards, the ideas carried by this political, economic and legal doctrine spread across the entire continent of Europe and attracted the attention to a greater or lesser extent of sovereigns and the enlightened elites of the day. What the movement proposed had the support of a number of crowned heads and aroused the enthusiasm of many of intellectuals, diplomats and foreign administrators. Certain monarchs and ministers were very much open to the spirit of the time and they decided to use physiocracy within the framework of their reforms of commercial law, taxation, the organization of labour, agriculture, territorial administration or education. Indeed, the theory of legal despotism combined with the three natural rights of “liberty, property and security” offered a suitable model for the regeneration of the State and the recognition of fundamental rights. Yet in some European countries, physiocracy was greeted with scepticism or indifference by other princes, ministers and thinkers who were often close to those in power. Although these rulers were looking for reformist solutions, they resorted only sparingly to the precepts of the school, when they didn’t reject them outright, the pretext being the pernicious effects of such precepts on traditional social order.

This dissertation aims to contrast the differences between Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s thoughts of China Despotism theory, to analyze the methodology and epistemology used by the two scholars to demonstrate and observe traditional China despotism, and, to expound and examine the description of traditional China despotism in Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s thoughts. Montesquieu was a rare one among Enlightenment philosophers who profoundly discussed China Despotism in the eighteenth century. In the elaboration of Montesquieu¡¦s China Despotism, there were lots of contradictions in De L'espirt Des Lois. Traditional China government was depreciated by him. From the empirical induce methodology, positivism epistemology and ontology¡¦s point of view, this dissertation tries to deeply analyze and research Montesquieu¡¥s China Despotism. At the time, there were also some Enlightenment Philosophers who have a different view of China Despotism. The representative was a Physiocrat ¡V Francois Quesnay. In his Le Despotisme De La Chine, he marked traditional China government positively. Quesnay, who developed his view based on the same empirical facts about traditional China according to the eighteenth century¡¦s Jesuits, travelers and businessmen and with the same natural science methodology, had totally different views and thoughts about China Despotism from Montesquieu. This dissertation has a detailed study and review on these differences. Questions will be explored in this dissertation are as below. Did the natural science methodology and epistemology of Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s China Despotism strengthen the judgment of how they valued traditional China government? Were there pre-judgments in their so-called neutral and objective denouncement about the way they researched China Despotism in the empirical induce methodology and epistemology? Were Montesquieu¡¦s and Quesnay¡¦s judgments about China Depotism enhanced by the natural science methodology and epistemology a kind of western centralism? Did they, in the name of neutral and objective empirical induce methodology and epistemology that could not reason non-western value, refuse and devaluate other non-western value? This dissertation has a deeply reflection on these from the ¡§paradigm¡¨ and ¡§incommensurable¡¨ methodological concepts of Thomas S. Kuhn¡¦s. If Montesquieu¡¦s China Despotism was the main point of western culture, was the way Quesnay observed traditional China government presenting a different value in the west culture and there were still some admiring this kind of value? Was this kind of evaluation neglected by recent Chinese intellects? This is a serious problem worthy of reconsideration and reflection. Keywords: Montesquieu, François Quesnay, Physiocracy, Despotism, enlightened despotism, China Despotism, natural science methodology, theory laden, Thomas S. Kuhn, paradigm, incommensurable

La découverte du fonds Petit aux Archives départementales de l’Indre a permis de suivre une famille adepte successivement de trois théories économiques du XVIIIe et du XIXe siècle : la physiocratie, le saint-simonisme et l’agrarisme. Mme Nicolas Petit, par son achat massif de terres et sa philosophie humanitaire, son fils Alexis Petit par son militantisme saint-simonien et son petit-fils Paul Petit par son appartenance efficace à l’agrarisme sont les exemples du passage entre ces trois mouvements. Les dossiers contenus dans les Archives départementales de l’Indre permettent également de suivre le parcours saint-simonien d’Alexis Petit, proche de Prosper Enfantin qu’il accompagna en Égypte à la recherche des vestiges du Canal de Suez. Alexis Petit tentera une expérience de ferme industrielle communautaire dans les vues saint-simoniennes. Paul Petit sera un militant agrarien, secrétaire de la Société d’agriculture de l’Indre. Cette thèse a pour but d’exploiter les nombreuses données sur le saint-simonisme à travers les correspondances inédites et à travers les documents que contiennent les Archives départementales de l’Indre et de donner une version nouvelle de ce mouvement. Son but est également de démontrer que Saint-Simon et les saint-simoniens sont un chaînon notable de la transmission entre la physiocratie et l’agrarisme. / The discovery of the Petit family collection at the archive of the Indre department allowed us to follow their successive experiences of three economic theories—physiocracy, Saint-Simonianism and agrarianism— through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Mrs Nicolas Petit (because of her massive purchase of land and her humanist philosophy), her son, Alexis Petit (through his Saint-Simonian militancy) and her grandson, Paul Petit (through his effective membership of agrarianism), are most eloquent examples of the passage from one theory to the next. The files contained in the archive of the Indre department also make it possible to follow the Saint-Simonian way of Alexis Petit, who accompanied Prosper Enfantin in Egypt in search of the remains of the Suez Canal. Alexis Petit attempted an experiment of an industrial community farm in the Saint-Simonian aspects. Paul Petit was an agrarian activist and the secretary of the Agricultural Society of Indre. This thesis aims at making the most of the numerous data on Saint-Simonianism, with unpublished correspondence, and through the documents contained in this collection, in order to present a new understanding of this movement. Its aim is also to demonstrate that Saint-Simonianism is a noteworthy link between physiocracy and agrarianism.