Period of Classical Economics Physiocracy is regarded as one of the first schools of modern economic thought, which arose during the late 18th-the late 19th century. It came from the Greek word “physis,” meaning nature, and  “kratia,” i.e. authority.  So it was called the  `government of nature,’ by the French economist/physiocrat Francois Quesnay and his followers. They viewed in nature, …