Ferdinando Galiani (1728-1787): What are the Roots of his Anti-Physiocratic Attitude?

The chapter aims at examining some aspects of Galiani’s criticism to Physiocracy. In order to do so, I try to demonstrate that the philosophy of history of Giambattista Vico is one of the roots of his scientific procedure. The importance of the thought of Vico in the analysis of Galiani had been recalled by Nicolini and Tagliacozzo and, partly, also by Einaudi and Diaz, but it seems quite put aside in the recent years. Vico’s historicism is far from the rationalism of Physiocrats, and this is an important basis of the criticism of Galiani. In the first part I briefly describe the historical and cultural context where the Dialogues was born, and the structure of the argument. Impossibility of directly applying a theory to all countries and necessity of considering which social groups are advantaged or disadvantaged by different rules appear as the basic issues of the proposals of the Dialogues. In the second part I recall some themes of the first to clear the vision of history and nature of Galiani. There also references to Della Moneta concerning value, “alzamento” and interest are introduced. The comparison with some points of the third New Science of Vico allows us to draw conclusions about the philosophy of history of Galiani and its incompatibility with the physiocratic theories.