Jacques Turgot

Jacques Turgot (1727-1781), French economist and statesman. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l’Aulne, was born in Paris and educated at the Sorbonne. After holding several minor posts in the parlement, or legislature, of Paris, he was appointed intendant, or chief executive officer, of the district of Limoges in 1761. Under the influence of the physiocratic school of economics, he instituted a number of financial reforms, notably the substitution of a money tax for the corvée, a feudal law requiring the people of the district to contribute free labor for the construction and maintenance of roads.

During his intendancy Turgot produced a pioneer work in political economy, Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses (Reflections on the Accumulation and Distribution of Wealth, 1766). According to his analysis, the sole source of wealth is land, and only agricultural products may legitimately be taxed. His other notable works include one of the first scientific studies on the question of lending money, Mémoire sur les prêts à intérêt (Treatise on Loans at Interest, 1769), and a proposal to encourage the free trade of grain in the French provinces, Lettres sur la liberté du commerce des grains (Notes on the Free Trade of Grain, 1770).

Turgot was appointed comptroller-general of finance in 1774 and immediately instituted strict reforms covering expenditures and taxation. In 1776 he submitted his famous Six Edicts to the Royal Council, in which he urged abolition of the corvée, suppression of commercial monopolies, and taxation of the nobility. His advocacy of these measures incurred the hostility of powerful commercial and political interests, and he was forced to resign. The rest of his life was spent in scientific and literary pursuits.