The concept of legal despotism (French: despotisme légal) formed part of the basis of the 18th century French physiocrats' political doctrine, developed alongside their more popularly known (in modern day) economic thought. This political concept was first introduced by the economiste François Quesnay (1694-1774) in his 1767 treatise Despotism in China (French: Le despotisme de la Chine) and followed in development that same year by Pierre-Paul Lemercier (1719-1801) in his text, The Natural and Essential Order of Political Societies (L'Ordre naturel et essentiel des sociétés politiques).
The political form envisioned by Quesnay, Lemercier, and their associates was a unitary authority within a state with both executive and legislative powers endowed unto an despot restricted in power only by a judicial system of magistrates ensuring that the monarch is limited in actions only by legal interpretations of natural law, and understandings of political-economic rights such as liberty, property, and security.[1][2] Besides the envisioned single tax (impôt unique) levied based on the productiveness of agricultural land, the legal despot would remain outside of the general domain of the economic sphere, leaving it be (laissez-faire) in accordance with stated natural laws.
