thumb|Arms of Baron Turgot: Ermine fretty of ten pieces gules, nailed or
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne ( ; ; 10 May 172718 March 1781), commonly known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Sometimes considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an early advocate for economic liberalism. He is thought to have been the first political economist to have postulated something like the law of diminishing marginal returns in agriculture.
Education
Born in Paris, Turgot was the youngest son of Michel-Étienne Turgot, "provost of the merchants" of Paris, and Madeleine Françoise Martineau de Brétignolles, and came from an old Norman family. As one of four children, he had a younger sister and two older brothers, one of whom, Étienne-François Turgot (1721–1789), was a naturalist, and served as administrator of Malta and governor of French Guiana. Anne Robert Jacques 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. In 1750 he decided not to take holy orders, giving as his reason that "he could not bear to wear a mask all his life."
The first sign of Turgot's interest in economics is a letter (1749) on paper money, written to his fellow-student the abbé de Cicé, refuting the abbé Jean 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."
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"), later Mme Helvétius, he is supposed at one time to have wished to marry; they remained lifelong friends – 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. and between 1757 and 1760 an article on Valeurs des monnaies, probably for the Dictionnaire du commerce of the abbé Morellet.
Intendant of Limoges, 1761–1774
thumb|Turgot (by Tardieu)
In August 1761, Turgot was appointed intendant (tax collector) 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), 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. was written early in the period of his intendancy, ostensibly for the benefit of two young Chinese scholars who had studied in Paris, Louis Ko (Gao Leisi, 1732–1790) and Étienne Yang (Yang Dewang, 1733–98), on the occasion of their return to China. 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 land is the only source of wealth, and divides society into three classes, the productive or agricultural, the salaried (the classe stipendiée) or artisan class, and the land-owning class (classe disponible). He also proposes a notable theory of the interest rate. 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. 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 Controller-General of Finances.
On government spending
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 controller-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".
Turgot also prepared a regular budget. His 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. Turgot suppressed, however, a number of octrois and minor duties, and opposed, on grounds of economy, the involvement of France in the American Revolutionary War, though without success. His position was strengthened by the entry of Malesherbes into the ministry (July 1775). 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 Turgot 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 protégés, and he had offended Mme. de Polignac in a similar manner.
Proposals for a representative government
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, and other activities. 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.
Place in the Ministry
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, containing a bitter caricature of Turgot.