1. a member of an 18th-century French school of economic thought that believed agriculture was the source of all wealth and that free trade was essential to economic prosperity
Usage: historical; economics

Examples

• The physiocrats argued that manufacturing was less important than agricultural production.
• Adam Smith was influenced by the ideas of the French physiocrats during his time in France.
• Physiocrats believed that land and farming were the true foundations of national wealth.
• The physiocrat school of thought emerged in France during the mid-1700s.
• Unlike mercantilists, physiocrats opposed heavy government regulation of trade.