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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Turgot Biography TURGOT, Anne Robert Jacques, Baron de l'Aulne (1727–81). A French economist and statesman. He was born in Paris, May 10, 1727, of an old family of Normandy, and was destined for an ecclesiastical career, but after studying awhile at the Sorbonne, where he won distinction, he turned from the Church and devoted himself to jurisprudence and political economy. Here he allied himself with the philosophical and liberal thought of his time. He was a contributor to the Encyclopédie and became a member of the physiocratic school of economists. He became councilor to the Parlement in 1752, and in 1761 was made intendant of Limoges, administering affairs there for 13 years, and carrying out within this field such reforms as ancient prejudices would allow. He introduced a more equitable administration of imposts, and succeeded in abolishing the old method of repairing roads and bridges by the compulsory labor of the poor inhabitants of the district, the corvée (q.v.). He also exerted himself for the protection of commerce. A wider field opened before him when he was called into the ministry after the death of Louis XV. The finances were in disorder, and the social and political system of France needed regeneration and reform. Turgot was first made Minister of Marine, and afterward Comptroller-General of France, when to fill that post was to be virtually Prime Minister. His first achievement was so far to reduce expenditure as to leave a surplus of 20 millions of francs a year to be applied to the liquidation of old debts. He augmented public revenue without imposing new taxes. An early measure was the carrying out of free trade in corn through the interior of France, He desired complete freedom of trade within the country, and to make the nobility and clergy contribute to the public revenue in the same proportion as the third estate. He wished, by means of provincial assemblies, to accustom the nation to public life, and prepare it for the restoration of the States-General. But the privileged classes whose exemptions were threatened, nobles, courtiers, farmers of the revenue, and financiers, united against him. The King forsook him, and Turgot retired in May, 1776, having held office only 20 months, afterward devoting himself to literary pursuits and scientific studies. His most important work, Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses (1766), is one of the chief productions of the physiocratic school. See Physiocrats. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 566. |