Turgot and What Might Have Been
12 May 2008 at 10:43 am Peter G. Klein 1 comment
| Peter Klein |
As a Francophile and Turgot enthusiast I direct you to Frédéric Sautet’s remarks on today’s anniversary of Turgot’s dismissal by the French crown:
May 12, 1776 was one of the saddest days for France. It was the day Louis XVI removed A.R.J. Turgot from office. Turgot was the Minister of Finance of France, the greatest French economist of the 18th century, and a key figure of the French enlightenment (he was a close friend of Condorcet, and Voltaire came to his rescue). He had a great sense of duty, freedom, and civilization. Turgot was too successful, so to speak, in his economic reforms and in the fiscal discipline he imposed on the finances of the French Crown. He fell because he wanted to go too far in the removal of confiscatory taxes (la taille and la corvée), the deregulation of commerce and industry, and the abolition of privileges many guilds and others possessed at the time (e.g. les droits féodaux). Turgot is perhaps the greatest reformer the world has ever seen. If Louis XVI had trusted his Minister of Finance to the end, it is likely that the French Revolution would not have taken place.
Note that Turgot even had his own castle. Ricardo was almost certainly wealthier, though. Böhm-Bawerk was also a fine Minister of Finance.
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Austrian Economics, Classical Liberalism.
Organizations and Markets 
1.
Randy Westgren | 12 May 2008 at 11:34 am
Oh, for the days when economists had vast wealth! Most of the ones I remember as wealthy while being contemporaneously influential either used their knowledge to speculate skillfully on the value of shares (Ricardo, Cantillon, Law – briefly) or landholdings and commerce (Turgot, von Thunen).
These names are certainly among the early thinkers on entrepreneurship and interest.