François Quesnay, 1694–1774: Reproduction and Capital

Quesnay was born at Mère, Seine-et-Oise. He came from a family of humble origin, the eighth of thirteen children. In 1711, he went to Paris for formal training in medicine and surgery. In 1717 he married Jeanne-Catherine Dauphine who gave him four children, two of whom survived. He began his career at Mantes, a small town not far from Paris, and in the 1720s and 1730s he made his reputation as a surgeon. In 1736 he published the Essai physique sur l’oeconomie animale, his first major work. In 1750 and 1751 Quesnay published the last of his medical works and became a member of the French Académie des Sciences and of the Royal Society in London.