Which group argued wealth comes primarily from agriculture and advocated laissez-faire, influencing Adam Smith?

• A. Mercantilists
• B. The Physiocrats
• C. Classical economists
• D. Socialists

Answer: (B)

Wealth comes from productive land and agriculture, not from government tinkering with trade or the accumulation of precious metals. The Physiocrats argued that agriculture is the source of a nation’s surplus—the real wealth that supports all other activities—while manufacturing and commerce simply transform that wealth. Because they believed nature sets the economy’s order, they advocated laissez-faire: minimal government intervention so the natural laws of the marketplace can operate. This emphasis on natural order and free movement of resources influenced Adam Smith, who argued for limited interference and the idea that markets tend toward greater prosperity when left largely to their own devices. By contrast, mercantilists tied wealth to gold and trade surpluses, classical economists later expanded on Smith’s framework, and socialists critique capitalist arrangements from a fundamentally different standpoint.