A hydraulic drive system for a civil engineering and construction machine comprising a hydraulic pump, an actuator driven by a hydraulic fluid delivered from said hydraulic pump, a flow control valve disposed between said hydraulic pump and said actuator, a pressure compensating valve having a valve spool for controlling a differential pressure (Pz-PLS) across said flow control valve, and pump delivery rate control means for controlling a flow rate of the hydraulic fluid delivered from said hydraulic pump dependent on a differential pressure (Pd-PLS) between a pump pressure and a load pressure of said actuator, said pressure compensating valve including a first control chamber subjected to load pressure (PLS) of said actuator for making the load pressure act on a first pressure receiving section of said valve spool to urge said valve spool in the valve-opening direction, a second control chamber subjected to the inlet pressure (Pz) of said flow control valve for making the inlet pressure act on a second pressure receiving section of said valve spool to urge said valve spool in the valve-closing direction, and target differential pressure setting means for urging said valve spool in the valve-opening direction for setting a target value of the differential pressure across said flow control valve, wherein:
- a pressure receiving area (Az) of said second pressure receiving section is set to be greater than a pressure receiving area (ALS) of said first pressure receiving section.