An otherwise "obscure tax official",[1] and teacher,[2] Morelly wrote two books on education, a critique of Montesquieu and The Code of Nature, which was published anonymously in France in 1755.

[2] This book, initially attributed to philosophes including Rousseau and Diderot,[2] criticised contemporary society, postulated a social order without avarice, and proposed a constitution intended to lead to an egalitarian society without property, marriage, church or police.

As a result of this latter characteristic of his utopia, Morelly is often seen as a significant forerunner of later socialist and communist thinkers.

François-Noël Babeuf, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Louis Blanc, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx all discussed Morelly's ideas in their own writing.

According to Morelly, "All.. durable products will be gathered together in public stores in order to be distributed to all the citizens, daily or at some other specified interval..."[citation needed] He also proposed banning of trade between individuals: "In accordance with the sacred laws, nothing will be sold or exchanged between citizens.