Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, often referred to as Turgot (10 May 1727 – 18 March 1781), was a French economist and statesman. From [1], in the public domain This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired in the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... Events 1727 to 1800 - Lt. ... March 18 is the 77th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (78th in leap years). ... 1781 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize in Economics winner. ... The term statesman is a respectful term used to refer to diplomats, politicians, and other notable figures of state. ...

Education

Born in Paris, he was the youngest son of Michel-Etienne Turgot, "Provost of the merchants" of Paris, and Madeleine Francoise Martineau de Brétignolles, and came of an old Norman family. He was educated for the Church, and at the Sorbonne, to which he was admitted in 1749 (being then styled abbé de Brucourt). He delivered two remarkable Latin dissertations, On the Benefits which the Christian Religion has conferred on Mankind, and On the Historical Progress of the Human Mind. The first sign we have of his interest in economics is a letter (1749) on paper money, written to his fellow student the abbé de Cicé, refuting the abbé Terrasson's defence of John Law's system. He was fond of verse-making, and tried to introduce into French verse the rules of Latin prosody, his translation of the fourth book of the Aeneid into classical hexameter verses being greeted by Voltaire as the only prose translation in which he had found any enthusiasm.   City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région ÃŽle-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land area... A provost (introduced into Scots from French) was the leader of a Scottish burgh council, the equivalent of a mayor in other parts of the English-speaking world. ... Mont Saint-Michel, one of the famous symbols of Normandy. ... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The Sorbonne today, from the same point of view The Collège de Sorbonne was a theological college of the University of Paris, founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon, after whom it is named. ... Events While in debtors prison, John Cleland writes Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure). ... Latin is an ancient [[Indo-European languages|Indo-well as the Roman CEuropean language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Face-to-face trading interactions among on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor Economics, may just involve more otriches than you think social science, studies the production, distribution, and consumption of commodities. ... A £20 Ulster Bank banknote. ... Jean Law John Law (bap. ... For the group of nine Ancient Egyptian deities, see Ennead. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Voltaire at 24 years of age by Nicolas de Largillière. ...

In 1750 he decided not to take holy orders, giving as his reason, according to Dupont de Nemours, "that he could not bear to wear a mask all his life." Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739 - 1817 August 7), born in Paris, France, was the founder of a dynamic and innovative family of entrepreneurs. ...

Early appointments

In 1752 he became substitut, and later conseiller in the parlement of Paris, and in 1753 maître des requêtes. In 1754 he was a member of the chambre royale which sat during an exile of the parlement. In Paris he frequented the salons, especially those of Mme de Graffigny—whose niece, Mlle de Ligniville ("Minette"), afterwards Mme Helvétius and his lifelong friend, he is supposed at one time to have wished to marry—Mme Geoffrin, Mme du Deffand, Mlle de Lespinasse and the duchesse d'Enville. It was during this period that he met the leaders of the "physiocratic" school, Quesnay and Vincent de Gournay, and with them Dupont de Nemours, the abbé Morellet and other economists. Parlements in ancien régime France — contrary to what their name would suggest to the modern reader — were not democratic or political institutions, but law courts . ... Maître des requêtes (in French, literally, master of petitions (the term maître is an honorific title for lawyers); plural: maîtres des requêtes) is an official title carried by certain high-level magistrates and adminstrators in France and some other European countries since the Middle Ages. ... Françoise dIssembourg dHapponcourt, Madame de Graffigny (1695-1758) was a woman of letters from north-east France. ... Claude Adrien Helvétius (February 26, 1715 - December 26, 1771) was a French philosopher and litterateur. ... Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin (1699 - October 6, 1777) was a French hostess who played an interesting part in French literary and artistic life. ... Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand (1697 - September 23, 1780) was a French hostess and patron of the arts. ... Jeanne Julie Eleonore de Lespinasse (November 9, 1732 – May 23, 1776), was a French author. ... The Physiocrats were a group of thinkers who believed in an economic theory which considered that the wealth of nations was derived solely from agriculture. ... François Quesnay. ... Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759) was a French economist and intendant of commerce, one of the creators of the laissez faire, laissez passer economic philosophy. ... André Morellet (March 7, 1727 - January 12, 1819) was a French economist and writer. ...

In 1755 and 1756 he accompanied in his tours of inspection in the provinces Gournay, the intendant of commerce, whose bye-word on the government's proper involvement in the economy, "laisser faire, laisser passer", would pass into the vocabulary of economics. In 1760, while travelling in the east of France and Switzerland, he visited Voltaire, who became one of his chief friends and supporters. All this time he was studying various branches of science, and languages both ancient and modern. In 1753 he translated the Questions sur le commerce from the English of Josias Tucker, and in 1754 he wrote his Lettre sur la tolérance civile, and a pamphlet, Le Conciliateur, in support of religious tolerance. Between 1755 and 1756 he composed various articles for the Encyclopédie ^[1], and between 1757 and 1760 an article on Valeurs des monnaies, probably for the Dictionnaire du commerce of the abbé Morellet. In 1759 appeared his Eloge de Gournay. New France was governed by three rulers: the governor, the bishop and the intendant, all appointed by the King, and sent from France. ... Laissez-faire (IPA: ) or laisser-faire is short for laissez faire, laissez aller, laissez passer, a French phrase meaning let do, let go, let pass. ... Voltaire at 24 years of age by Nicolas de Largillière. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...

Intendant of Limoges, 1761-74

In August 1761 Turgot was appointed intendant of the genéralité of Limoges, which included some of the poorest and most over-taxed parts of France; here he remained for thirteen years. He was already deeply imbued with the theories of Quesnay and Gournay, and set to work to apply them as far as possible in his province. His first plan was to continue the work, already initiated by his predecessor Tourny, of making a fresh survey of the land (cadastre), in order to arrive at a more just assessment of the taille; he also obtained a large reduction in the contribution of the province. He published his Avis sur l'assiette et la repartition de la taille (1762–1770), and as president of the Société d'agriculture de Limoges offered prizes for essays on the principles of taxation. Quesnay and Mirabeau had advocated a proportional tax (impôt de quotité^[2]), but Turgot proposed a distributive tax (impôt de repartition). Another reform was the substitution for the corvée of a tax in money levied on the whole province, the construction of roads being handed over to contractors, by which means Turgot was able to leave his province with a good system of highways, while distributing more justly the expense of their construction. Location within France Limoges (Limòtges in Occitan) is a city and commune in France, the préfecture of the Haute-Vienne département, and the administrative capital of the Limousin région. ... Cadastre (a French word from the Late Latin capitastrum, a register of the poll-tax) is a register of the real property of a country, with details of the area, the owners and the value. ... The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry in ancien régime France (since the nobles refused to pay taxes). ... Portrait of Mirabeau Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, (often referred to simply as Mirabeau) (March 9, 1749 - April 2, 1791) was a French writer, popular orator and statesman. ... A flat tax, also called a proportional tax, is a system that taxes all entities in a class (typically either citizens or corporations) at the same rate (as a proportion on income), as opposed to a graduated, or progressive, scheme. ... A progressive tax is a tax imposed so that the tax rate increases as the amount to which the rate is applied increases. ... Corvée, or corvée labor, is a term used in feudal societies. ...

In 1769 he wrote his Mémoire sur les prêts à intérêt, on the occasion of a scandalous financial crisis at Angoulême, the particular interest of which is that in it the question of lending money at interest was for the first time treated scientifically, and not merely from the ecclesiastical point of view. Turgot's opinion was that a compromise had to be reached between both methods. Among other works written during Turgot's intendancy were the Mémoire sur les mines et carrières, and the Mémoire sur la marque des fers, in which he protested against state regulation and interference and advocated free competition. At the same time he did much to encourage agriculture and local industries, among others establishing the manufacture of porcelain at Limoges. During the famine of 1770–1771 he enforced on landowners "the obligation of relieving the poor" and especially the métayers dependent upon them, and organized in every province ateliers and bureaux de charité for providing work for the able-bodied and relief for the infirm, while at the same time he condemned indiscriminate charity. It may be noted that Turgot always made the curés the agents of his charities and reforms when possible. It was in 1770 that he wrote his famous Lettres sur la liberté du commerce des grains, addressed to the controller-general, the abbé Terray. Three of these letters have disappeared, having been sent to Louis XVI by Turgot at a later date and never recovered, but those remaining demonstrate that free trade in grain is to the interest of landowner, farmer and consumer alike, and in too forcible terms demand the removal of all restrictions. Angoulême is a town and commune in southwestern France, préfecture (capital city) of the Charente département. ... An example of Money. ... Interest is the rent paid to borrow money. ... The manufactory of hard-paste Limoges porcelain was established by Turgot in 1771 and placed under the patronage of the comte dArtois, brother of Louis XVI. Limoges had been the site of a minor industry producing plain faience earthenwares since the 1730s, but the first identified French source of... Allegorical personification of Charity as a mother with three infants by Anthony van Dyck // [edit] Etymology In the 1400, charity meant the state of love or simple affection which one was in or out of regarding ones fellows; an occasion or body of people seeking to embody that state... Joseph Marie Terray (December 1715, Boën — February 18, 1778) was a controller general during the reign of Louis XV of France. ... Louis XVI of France Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then King of the French from 1791 to 1792. ... Free trade is an economic concept referring to the selling of products between countries without tariffs or other trade barriers. ...

Turgot's Réflexions

Turgot's best known work, Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses (Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth), was written early in the period of his intendancy, ostensibly for the benefit of two young Chinese students.^[3] Written in 1766, it appeared in 1769–1770 in Dupont's journal, the Ephémérides du citoyen, and was published separately in 1776. Dupont, however, made various alterations in the text, in order to bring it more into accordance with Quesnay's doctrines, which led to a coolness between him and Turgot.

In the Réflexions, after tracing the origin of commerce, Turgot develops Quesnay's theory that the land is the only source of wealth, and divides society into three classes, the productive or agricultural, the salaried (the classe stipendice) or artisan class, and the land-owning class (classe disponible). After discussing the evolution of the different systems of cultivation, the nature of exchange and barter, money, and the functions of capital, he sets forth the theory of the impôt unique, i.e. that only the net product (produit net) of the land should be taxed. In addition he demanded the complete freedom of commerce and industry. Commerce is the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money between two or more entities. ... In economics, land comprises all naturally occurring resources, such as geographical locations, mineral deposits, and even portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In politics, a capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has a second meaning based on an alternative sense of capital) is the principal city or town associated with a countrys government. ...

Turgot as minister, 1774-76

Turgot owed his appointment as minister of the navy in July 1774 to Maurepas, the "Mentor" of Louis XVI, to whom he was warmly recommended by the abbé Very, a mutual friend. His appointment met with general approval, and was hailed with enthusiasm by the philosophes. A month later (24 August) he was appointed comptroller-general. His first act was to submit to the king a statement of his guiding principles: "No bankruptcy, no increase of taxation, no borrowing." Turgot's policy, in face of the desperate financial position, was to enforce the most rigid economy in all departments. All departmental expenses were to be submitted for the approval of the comptroller-general, a number of sinecures were suppressed, the holders of them being compensated, and the abuse of the acquits au comptant was attacked, while Turgot appealed personally to the king against the lavish giving of places and pensions. He also contemplated a thorough-going reform of the Ferme Générale, but contented himself, as a beginning, with imposing certain conditions on the leases as they were renewed—such as a more efficient personnel, and the abolition for the future of the abuse of the croupes (the name given to a class of pensions), a reform which Terray had shirked on finding how many persons in high places were interested in them, and annulling certain leases, such as those of the manufacture of gunpowder and the administration of the royal mails, the former of which was handed over to a company with the scientist Lavoisier as one of its advisers, and the latter superseded by a quicker and more comfortable service of diligences which were nicknamed "turgotines". He also prepared a regular budget. Turgot's measures succeeded in considerably reducing the deficit, and raised the national credit to such an extent that in 1776, just before his fall, he was able to negotiate a loan with some Dutch bankers at 4%; but the deficit was still so large as to prevent him from attempting at once to realize his favourite scheme of substituting for indirect taxation a single tax on land. He suppressed, however, a number of octrois and minor duties, and opposed, on grounds of economy, the participation of France in the American Revolutionary War, though without success. Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas (July 9, 1701 - November 21, 1781) was a French statesman. ... Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715) ruled as King of France and of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death just prior to his seventy-seventh birthday. ... A sinecure (from Latin sine, without, and cura, care) means an office which requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. ... The Ferme Générale was, in ancien régime France, essentially a franchised customs and excise operation which collected duties on behalf of the king, through 6-years adjudications. ... Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 - May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ... Buffalo soldiers guard a Concord style stagecoach somewhere in the American West, ca. ... Land value taxation (LVT) is the policy of raising state revenues by charging each landholder a portion of the value of a site or parcel of land that would exist even if that site had no improvements. ... Octroi (0. ... Combatants American Revolutionaries, France, The Netherlands, Spain, American Indians Great Britain, German mercenaries, Loyalists, American Indians Canadian Indians Commanders George Washington, Comte de Rochambeau, Nathanael Greene, Bernardo de Gálvez Sir William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Cornwallis (more commanders) The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the...

Turgot at once set to work to establish free trade in grain, but his edict, which was signed on 13 September 1774, met with strong opposition even in the conseil du roi. A striking feature was the preamble, setting forth the doctrines on which the edict was based, which won the praise of the philosophes and the ridicule of the wits; this Turgot rewrote three times, it is said, in order to make it "so clear that any village judge could explain it to the peasants." The opposition to the edict was strong. Turgot was hated by those who had been interested in the speculations in grain under the regime of the abbé Terray, among whom were included some of the princes of the blood. Moreover, the commerce des blés had been a favourite topic of the salons for some years past, and the witty Galiani, the opponent of the physiocrats, had a large following. The opposition was now continued by Linguet and by Necker, who in 1775 published his Essai sur la législation et le commerce des grains. But Turgot's worst enemy was the poor harvest of 1774, which led to a slight rise in the price of bread in the winter and early spring of 1774 - 1775. In April disturbances arose at Dijon, and early in May took place those extraordinary bread-riots known as the guerre des farines, which may be looked upon as a first sample of the French Revolution, so carefully were they organized. Turgot showed great firmness and decision in repressing the riots, and was loyally supported by the king throughout. His position was strengthened by the entry of Malesherbes into the ministry (July 1775). September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ... Chesma Column in Tsarskoe Selo, commemorating the end of the Russo-Turkish War. ... The Conseil du Roi or Kings Council is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the king of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice. ... A salon is a gathering of stimulating people of quality under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation and readings, often consciously following Horaces definition of the aims of poetry, to... Ferdinando Galiani (December 2, 1728 - October 30, 1787) was an Italian economist. ... The Physiocrats were a group of economists who believed that the wealth of nations was derived solely from agriculture. ... Simon-Nicholas Henri Linguet (July 14, 1736 – June 27, 1794), French journalist and advocate, was born in Reims, where his father, the assistant principal in the Collège de Beauvais of Paris, had recently been exiled by lettre de cachet for engaging in the Jansenist controversy. ... Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (September 30, 1732 – April 9, 1804) was a French statesman and finance minister of Louis XVI. // Early life Necker was Geneva, Switzerland. ... Dijon ( ) is a city in eastern France, the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Côte-dOr département and of the Bourgogne région. ... The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. ... Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes (December 6, 1721–April 23, 1794) was a French statesman, minister, and afterwards counsel for the defence of Louis XVI. Born at Paris from a famous legal family...

All this time Turgot had been preparing his famous Six Edicts, which were finally presented to the conseil du roi (January 1776). Of the six edicts four were of minor importance, but the two which met with violent opposition were, firstly, the edict suppressing the corvées, and secondly, that suppressing the jurandes and maîtrises, by which the craft guilds maintained their privileges. In the preamble to the former Turgot boldly announced as his object the abolition of privilege, and the subjection of all three Estates of the realm to taxation; the clergy were afterwards excepted, at the request of Maurepas. In the preamble to the edict on the jurandes he laid down as a principle the right of every man to work without restriction. He obtained the registration of the edicts by the lit de justice of 12 March, but by that time he had nearly everybody against him. His attacks on privilege had won him the hatred of the nobles and the parlements, his attempted reforms in the royal household, that of the court, his free trade legislation, that of the financiers, his views on tolerance and his agitation for the suppression of the phrase that was offensive to Protestants in the king's coronation oath, that of the clergy, and his edict on the jurandes that of the rich bourgeoisie of Paris and others, such as the prince de Conti, whose interests were involved. The queen disliked him for opposing the grant of favours to her proteges, and he had offended Mme. de Polignac in a similar manner. Corvée, or corvée labor, is a term used in feudal societies. ... A guild is an association of people of the same trade or pursuits (with a similar skill or craft), formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards of workmanship and ethical conduct. ... In several different regions of medieval Europe, and continuing in some countries down to the present day, the estates of the realm were broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners; this last group was, in some regions, further divided into burghers (also known as bourgeoisie) and peasants. ... In France under the Ancien Régime, the Bed of Justice (Lit de justice) was a particular formal session of the Parlement of Paris, under the presidency of the king, for the compulsory registration of the royal edicts. ... Parlements (pronounced in French) in ancien régime France — contrary to what their name would suggest to the modern reader — were not democratic or political institutions, but law courts . ... Financier (IPA: /ˌfi nãn ˈsjei/) is an elegant term for a person who handles large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. ... Protestantism is one of three main groups currently within Christianity. ... The coronation of Empress Farah, of Iran in 1967. ... The title of Prince of Conti, assumed by a cadet branch of the house of Bourbon-Condé, was taken from Conti-sur-Selles, a small town of northern France, about 20 miles southwest of Amiens, which came into the Condé family by the marriage of Louis of Bourbon, first prince... Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France and Archduchess of Austria (born November 1755 – executed 16 October 1793) Daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, wife of Louis XVI and mother of Louis XVII. She was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution. ... Protege is when ou are good at something at a young age ... Gabrielle de Polastron Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, comtesse de Polignac (September 8, 1749–December 9, 1793) was a French aristocrat and friend of Marie Antoinette, whom she first met at Versailles in 1775. ...

All might yet have gone well if Turgot could have retained the confidence of the king, but the king could not fail to see that Turgot had not the support of the other ministers. Even his friend Malesherbes thought he was too rash, and was, moreover, himself discouraged and wished to resign. The alienation of Maurepas was also increasing. Whether through jealousy of the ascendancy which Turgot had acquired over the king, or through the natural incompatibility of their characters, he was already inclined to take sides against Turgot, and the reconciliation between him and the queen, which took place about this time, meant that he was henceforth the tool of the Polignac clique and the Choiseul party. About this time, too, appeared a pamphlet, Le Songe de M. Maurepas, generally ascribed to the comte de Provence (Louis XVIII), containing a bitter caricature of Turgot. A clique (pronounced ) is an informal and restricted social group formed by a number of people who share common interests - formal social groups are referred to as societies or organizations. ... Étienne-François, duc de Choiseul, French diplomat and statesman Étienne-François, duc de Choiseul (June 28, 1719 — May 8, 1785) was a French statesman. ... Louis XVIII (November 17, 1755 - September 16, 1824) was King of France and Navarre from 1814 (although he declared that he considered his reign to have begun in 1795) until his death in 1824, with a brief break in 1815 due to Napoleons return in the Hundred Days. ... A common caricature of Charles Darwin focuses on his beard, eyebrows, and baldness, while often giving him the features of an ape or monkey. ...

Before relating the circumstances of Turgot's fall we may briefly resume his views on the administrative system. With the physiocrats, he believed in an enlightened political absolutism, and looked to the king to carry through all reforms. As to the parlements, he opposed all interference on their part in legislation, considering that they had no competency outside the sphere of justice. He recognized the danger of the recap of the old parlement, but was unable effectively to oppose it since he had been associated with the dismissal of Maupeou and Terray, and seems to have underestimated its power. He was opposed to the summoning of the states-general advocated by Malesherbes (6 May 1775), possibly on the ground that the two privileged orders would have too much power in them. His own plan is to be found in his Mémoire sur les municipalités, which was submitted informally to the king. In Turgot's proposed system, landed proprietors alone were to form the electorate, no distinction being made among the three orders; the members of the town and country municipalités were to elect representatives for the district municipalités, which in turn would elect to the provincial municipalités, and the latter to a grande municipalité, which should have no legislative powers, but should concern itself entirely with the administration of taxation. With this was to be combined a whole system of education, relief of the poor, etc. Louis XVI recoiled from this as being too great a leap in the dark, and such a fundamental difference of opinion between king and minister was bound to lead to a breach sooner or later. Turgot's only choice, however, was between "tinkering" at the existing system in detail and a complete revolution, and his attack on privilege, which might have been carried through by a popular minister and a strong king, was bound to form part of any effective scheme of reform. Enlightened Absolutism (also known as benevolent despotism or enlightened despotism) is a term used to describe the actions of absolute rulers who were influenced by the Enlightenment, a historical period of the 18th and early 19th centuries. ... René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou (February 25, 1714 - July 29, 1792), chancellor of France, was the eldest son of René Charles de Maupeou (1688-1775), who was president of the parlement of Paris from 1743 to 1757. ... In France under the Ancien Régime, the States-General or Estates-General (French: États généraux), was a legislative assembly (see The States) of the different classes (or estates) of French subjects. ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... 1775 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Landed property or landed estates is a real estate term that usually refers to a property that generates income for the owner without himself having to do the actual work at the estate. ... In politics, an electorate is the group of people entitled to vote in an election. ...

The fall of Turgot

The immediate cause of Turgot's fall is uncertain. Some speak of a plot, of forged letters containing attacks on the queen shown to the king as Turgot's, of a series of notes on Turgot's budget prepared, it is said, by Necker, and shown to the king to prove his incapacity. Others attribute it to the queen, and there is no doubt that she hated Turgot for supporting Vergennes in demanding the recall of the comte de Guines, the ambassador in London, whose cause she had ardently espoused at the prompting of the Choiseul clique. Others attribute it to an intrigue of Maurepas. On the resignation of Malesherbes (April 1776), whom Turgot wished to replace by the abbé Very, Maurepas proposed to the king as his successor a nonentity named Amelot. Turgot, on hearing of this, wrote an indignant letter to the king, in which he reproached him for refusing to see him, pointed out in strong terms the dangers of a weak ministry and a weak king, and complained bitterly of Maurepas's irresolution and subjection to court intrigues; this letter the king, though asked to treat it as confidential, is said to have shown to Maurepas, whose dislike for Turgot it still further embittered. With all these enemies, Turgot's fall was certain, but he wished to stay in office long enough to finish his project for the reform of the royal household before resigning. This, however, he was not allowed to do, but on 12 May, was ordered to send in his resignation. He at once retired to La Roche-Guyon, the château of the duchesse d'Enville, returning shortly to Paris, where he spent the rest of his life in scientific and literary studies, being made vice-president of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1777. Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (September 30, 1732 – April 9, 1804) was a French statesman and finance minister of Louis XVI. // Early life Necker was Geneva, Switzerland. ... Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes (December 20, 1717—February 13, 1787) was a French statesman and diplomat. ... For other uses, see Ambassador (disambiguation). ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes (December 6, 1721–April 23, 1794) was a French statesman, minister, and afterwards counsel for the defence of Louis XVI. Born at Paris from a famous legal family... May 12 is the 132nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (133rd in leap years). ... La Roche-Guyon is a commune of the Val-dOise département in France. ... The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society founded in 1663 and concerned with the humanities. ... 1777 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

In character Turgot was simple, honourable and upright, with a passion for justice and truth. He was an idealist, his enemies would say a doctrinaire, and certainly the terms "natural rights," "natural law," frequently occur in his writings. His friends speak of his charm and gaiety in intimate intercourse, but among strangers he was silent and awkward, and produced the impression of being reserved and disdainful. On one point both friends and enemies agree, and that is his brusquerie and his lack of tact in the management of men; Oncken points out with some reason the "schoolmasterish" tone of his letters, even to the king. As a statesman he has been very variously estimated, but it is generally agreed that a large number of the reforms and ideas of the Revolution were due to him; the ideas did not as a rule originate with him, but it was he who first gave them prominence. As to his position as an economist, opinion is also divided. Oncken, to take the extreme of condemnation, looks upon him as a bad physiocrat and a confused thinker, while Leon Say considers that he was the founder of modern political economy, and that "though he failed in the 18th century he triumphed in the 19th." Jean-Baptiste Léon Say (June 6, 1826 - April 21, 1896), French statesman and economist, was born in Paris. ...

Notes

1. ^ "Fairs and markets" and "Fondations"
2. ^ "The impôt de quotité is the result of the application of a tax where the result cannot be calculated in advance.
3. ^ A familiar literary device that permits the presentation of the subject from the ground up, without appearing to undervalue the reader's intelligence. Compare the Persian Letters of Montesquieu, with their solemn explication of European customs to an outsider, in Montesquieu a vehicle for satire.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Persian Letters Persian Letters is a satirical story of two Persian brothers, Usbek and Rica, traveling through France by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu. ... Portrait of Montesquieu in 1728. ...

Bibliography

• Douglas Dakin, Turgot and the Ancien Régime in France, Londres, Methuen, 1939
• Steven L. Kaplan, Bread, Politics and Political Economy in the Reign of Louis XV, 2 T. La Haye, Martinus Nijhoff, 1976.
• Ronald L. Meek, Social Science and the Ignoble Savage, Cambridge University Press, 1976

See also

• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... This is an (partial) overview of individuals that contributed to the development of liberal theory on a worldwide scale and therefore are strongly associated with the liberal tradition and instrumental in the exposition of political liberalism as a philosophy. ...

References

• Map of Paris, 1739 by Michel Turgot at the University of Southern Maine
• Map of Paris, 1739 by Michel Turgot at the University of Chicago

• Dr David Hart, "Turgot: life and works" Annotated bibliography of Turgot's published works.
• "Biography of A.R.J. Turgot: Brief, Lucid, and Brilliant" by Murray Rothbard
• "Notice sur la linguistique de Turgot" by D. Droixhe, 1993, Encyclopedia of language and linguistics
• Turgot Page at McMaster
• Turgot Page at Akamac
• Turgot entry at Bartleby
• Jacques Turgot at Catholic Encyclopedia
• Turgot Page at Acton institute.
• Turgot page at UCL
• "Turgot's Gallant Failure" by David Redfearn
• Turgot on progress and political economy
• Turgot Page at Paulette Taïeb.

• Notice Biographique by Paulette Taïeb.
• "L'Eclat de Turgot" by Murray Rothbard (French translation of "The Brilliance of Turgot")
• Turgot page at Académie de Strasbourg
• 12 mai 1776: "Renvoi de Turgot" by Hérodote
• The Lycée Turgot in Paris
• The Lycée Turgot in Limoges
• The Institut Turgot in Paris

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...