Mercantilism equated a high level of government control with prosperity and the future of the state. (Rempel, 2005) Physiocratism stressed a lack of government control as key to allowing the agricultural sector within a nation to flourish. Thus physiocratism wished to enhance the prosperity of the rural populace rather than the aristocratic populace in control of governing the land as the 'key' to a successful economy.
Physiocratism stressed the need to increase the net product of the nation rather than to enhance the nation's prosperity through military efforts to gain control of colonial powers and to provide a venue for its considerable amount of exported goods, as was key in mercantilism. ("Physiocrats," The New School, 2005) Hence mercantilism can be defined as an effort to achieve economic unity and political control through economic regulation primarily by ensuring a favorable balance of trade.