Adam Smith visited Quesnay in 1765, was attracted by his “modesty and simplicity,” and was confirmed in his own predilection for economic liberty. He judged “the capital error of this system … to lie in its representing the class of artificers, manufacturers, and merchants as altogether barren and unproductive,” but he concluded that “this system, with all its imperfections, is perhaps the nearest approximation to the truth that has yet been published on the subject of political economy.”
