A hydraulic drive system comprising a prime mover (21), a hydraulic pump (22) driven by the prime mover, a plurality of hydraulic actuators (23-28) driven by hydraulic fluid supplied from the hydraulic pump, a plurality of flow control valves (29-34) for controlling flow of the hydraulic fluid supplied to the actuators, and a plurality of pressure compensating valve (35-40) for controlling respective differential pressures across the respective flow control valves, in which each of the pressure compensating valves applies a control force (f-F.sub.c) in a valve opening direction for setting a target value of the differential pressure across the flow control valve. There are provided a first detector (60) for detecting the target rotational speed (N.sub.0) of the prime mover (21), and controllers (61, 62, 63) for controlling the control force on the basis of the target rotational speed detected by at least the first detector such that the control force (f-F.sub.c) decreases in accordance with a decrease in the target rotational speed.