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TURGOT, ANNE ROBERT JACQUES, BARON DE
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See also:TURGOT, See also:ANNE See also:ROBERT JACQUES, See also:BARON DE LAUNE
(1727-1781), See also:French statesman and economist, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the loth of May 1727. He was the youngest son of See also:Michel See also:Etienne Turgot, " See also:provost of the merchants " of Paris, and Madeleine Francoise See also:Martineau, and came of an old See also:Norman See also:family. He was educated for the See also: In See also:August 176r Turgot was appointed intendant of the generalite of See also:Limoges, which included some of the poorest and most over-taxed parts of France; here he remained for 13 years. He was already deeply imbued with the theories of Quesnay and Gournay (see PHYSiocRATIC SCHOOL), and set to See also:work to apply them as far as possible in his See also:province. His first See also:plan was to continue the work, already initiated by his predecessor Tourny, of making a fresh survey of the See also:land (See also:cadastre), in See also:order to arrive at a juster See also:assessment of the See also: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 See also:president of the Societe d'See also:agriculture de Limoges offered prizes for essays on the principles of See also:taxation. Quesnay and See also:Mirabeau had advocated a proportional tax (impot de quotite), but Turgot a distributive tax (impot de repartition). Another reform was the substitution for the corvee 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 See also:good system of roads, while distributing more justly the expense of their construction. In 1769 he wrote his Memoire sur See also:les preets d interet, on the occasion of a scandalous See also:financial crisis at See also:Angouleme, the See also:peculiar 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. Among other See also:works written during Turgot's intendancy were the Memoire sur les mines et carrieres, and the Memoire sur la marque des See also:fens, in which he protested against See also:state regulation and interference and advocated See also:free competition. At the same time he did much to encourage agriculture and See also:local See also:industries, among others establishing the manufacture of See also:porcelain. During the See also:famine of 1770-1771 he enforced on landowners " the See also:obligation of relieving the poor " and especially the metayers dependent upon them, and organized in every province ateliers and bureaux de charite for providing work for the able-bodied and See also:relief for the infirm, while at the same time he condemned indiscriminate charity. It may be noted that Turgot always made the See also:cures the agents of his charities and reforms when possible. It was in 1770 that he wrote his famous Lettres sur la liberte du commerce des grains, addressed to the See also:comptroller-See also:general, the abbe Terray. Three of these letters have disappeared, having been sent to See also: Feilbogen, Smith and Turgot (1892); also E. Cannan's introduction to Smith's Lectures on See also:Justice, &c. (See also:Clarendon See also:Press, 1896) ; and H. Higgs's See also:review of the latter in the Economic Journal, Dec. 1896. The question may still be considered an open one. See also Neymarck, i. 332, footnote, for the French authorities. See also:Condorcet's statement that Turgot corresponded with Smith is disproved by a letter of Smith to the duc de la Rochefoucauld, published in the Economic Journal (See also: His first See also:act was to submit to the See also: Turgot showed See also:great firmness and decision in repressing the riots, and was loyally supported by the king throughout. His position was strengthened by the entry of See also:Malesherbes into the ministry (July 1775).
All this time Turgot had been preparing his famous " Six Edicts," which were finally presented to the conseil du roi (See also:Jan. 1776). Of the six edicts four were of minor importance, and, I flattered myself, even of his friendship and esteem, I never
had that of his See also:correspondence," but there is no doubt that Adam Smith met Turgot in Paris, and it is generally admitted that The Wealth of Nations owes a good See also:deal to Turgot.
For an See also:account of Turgot's financial administration, see Ch. Gomel, Causes financieres, vol. i.but the two which met with violent' opposition were, firstly,, the edict suppressing the corvees, and secondly, that suppressing the jurandes and maitrises, the privileged trade corporations. In the preamble to the former Turgot boldly announced as his See also:object the abolition of See also:privilege, and the subjection of all three orders to taxation; the, See also:clergy were afterwards excepted, at the See also:request of Maurepas. In the preamble to the edict on the jurandes he laid down as a principle the right of every See also:man to work without restriction? He obtained the See also:registration of the edicts by the lit de justice of the 12th of 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 See also:house-hold 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 offensive to Protestants in the king's See also:coronation See also:oath that of the clergy, and his edict on the jurandes that of the See also:rich bourgeoisie of Paris and others, such as the See also:prince de See also:Conti, whose interests were involved. The See also:queen disliked him for opposing the See also: 305- 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 See also:alienation of Maurepas was also increasing. Whether through See also: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 See also:tool of the Polignac clique and the See also:Choiseul party.. About this time, too, appeared a pamphlet, Le Songe de M. Maurepas, generally ascribed to the See also:comte de See also:Provence (Louis XVIII.), containing a See also:bitter See also:caricature of Turgot. Before See also: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 See also:absolutism, and looked to the king to carry through all reforms. As to the parlements, he opposed all interference on their See also:part in legislation, considering that they had no competency outside the See also:sphere of justice. He recognized the danger of the recall of the old parlement, but was unable effectively to oppose it since he had been associated with the dismissal of See also:Maupeou and Terray, and seems to have underestimated its See also:power. He was opposed to the summoning of the states-general advocated by Malesherbes (May 6, 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 Memoire sur les municipalites, which was submitted informally to the king. In Turgot's proposed system landed proprietors alone were to See also:form the electorate, no distinction being made between the three orders; the members of the See also:town and See also:country municipalites were to elect representatives for the See also:district municipalites, which in turn would elect to the provincial municipalites, and the latter to a grande municipalite, which should have no legislative See also:powers, but should concern itself entirely with the administration' of taxation. With this was to be combined a whole system of See also:education, relief of the poor, &c. Louis XVI. recoiled from this as being too great a leap in the dark, and such a fundamental difference of See also:opinion between king and minister was See also:bound to See also:lead to a See also: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. 9 Turgot was opposed to all labour associations of employers or employed, in accordance with his belief in free competition. The immediate cause of Turgot's fall is uncertain. Some speak of a See also:plot, of forged letters containing attacks on the queen shown to the king as Turgot's, of a See also: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 See also:Vergennes in demanding the recall of the comte de See also:Guines, the See also:ambassador in See also: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 abbe Very, Maurepas proposed to the king as his successor a nonentity named Amelot. Turgot, on See also: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 See also:office See also:long enough to finish his project for the reform of the royal house-hold before resigning. This, however, he was not allowed to do, but on the 12th of May was ordered to send in his resignation. He at once retired to la See also:Roche-See also:Guyon, the See also:chateau of the duchesse d'Enville, returning shortly to Paris, where he spent the See also:rest of his life in scientific and See also:literary studies, being made See also:vice-president of the See also:Academic des See also:Inscriptions et Belles-lettres in 1777. He died on the 18th of March 1781. In See also:character Turgot was See also:simple, See also:honourable and upright, with a See also:passion for justice and truth. He was an idealist, his enemies would say a doctrinaire, and certainly the terms " natural rights," " natural law," &c., frequently occur in his writings. His friends speak of his See also: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 want of tact in the management of men; Oncken points out with some reason the " schoolmasterish " See also: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 See also:rule originate with him, but it was he who first gave them prominence. As' to his position as an economist, opinion is also divided. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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