Second, the physiocrats say that the existence of an Economic Table, which enables the circuit of production and the formation of rent to be followed very exactly, gives the sovereign the possibility of exact knowledge of everything taking place within his country, thus giving him the power to control economic processes. That is to say, the Economic Table will offer-the sovereign a principle of analysis and a sort of principle of transparency in relation to the whole of the economic process.

Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, loc. 1462