Excerpt: "The middle of the 18th century saw the creation of the first true school of economic thought, formed around Doctor François Quesnay (who was notably doctor to the Marquise de Pompadour). Its principal members were Victor Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau (father of the future revolutionary tribune), Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, Father Nicolas Baudeau and Paul Pierre Lemercier de la Rivière. The so-called Economists School, or physiocracy , advocated free trade and political reforms to counter monarchical arbitrariness. It had a marked impact on intellectual spheres and public opinion through its members’ participation in salons and via the press, which enabled it to disseminate its analyses and demands in Éphémérides du citoyen, directed at different times by Baudeau and Du Pont de Nemours.