Turgot, ANNE ROBERT JACQUES, an eminent French statesman, born at Paris, May 10, 1727, was descended from one of the most ancient families of Normandy. His father held the highest municipal offices at Paris. In his boyhood Turgot was shy, over-sensitive, and awkward; and these failings were aggravated by the harshness of his mother. Being a younger son, he was educated for the church; but soon after attaining to manhood he resolved to abandon the ecclesiastical for the legal profession; 'he could not consent,' he said, 'to wear a mask all his life.' At an early age he had joined the ranks of the philosophic party, who were rapidly imbuing the opinion of France and of Europe with new ideas. Even before he left the Sorbonne, where he had a distinguished career, he wrote essays which gave him a place among the most enlightened students of history of his time. After holding some legal appointments of subordinate importance Turgot was appointed to the office of Intendant of Limoges in 1761. Though more than once invited to more attractive positions, he filled the post for thirteen years, eagerly and resolutely striving to apply to his province the principles of justice and progress, which he loved. The Limoges was in a very low condition when he entered on his functions. In many ways it was merely a sample of the prevalent state of things all over France before the Revolution; in some respects it was worse than other districts. The soil was not fertile, and the natural defects of the soil were made unspeakably worse by a system of government which was irrational and unjust to a degree almost inconceivable. The people were poor, rude, immoral, and superstitious, the victims from time immemorial of ignorance, degradation, and oppression. Turgot introduced a better administration of imposts, and succeeded in abolishing the method of repairing roads and bridges by compulsory labour. He introduced the cultivation of the potato into the Limoges, overcoming the prejudices of the inhabitants by using it at his own table. In 1770 he had to meet a famine, which lasted two years and reduced the people to the severest straits. It should be said that the central government, of which Turgot was the representative, readily supported him in his schemes as far as it was able; and he also received cordial assistance from the rural priests in reaching the minds of the people. The evils with which he had to contend were rooted in the social and political system of France, especially in the overgrown privileged classes, which, as intended, he was powerless really to change.
On the accession of Louis XVI. in 1774 Turgot had a brief opportunity of attempting the regeneration of France on a wider scale. He was first appointed minister of Marine, and soon afterwards controller-general of Finance, at that period the most important department of government. His rise was hailed with joy by his friends Voltaire, Condorcet, and other chiefs of the school of progress; it was fervently hoped that by a philosopher in power great things would be accomplished. In his letter to the young king he adopted as the principles of his administration that there should be 'no bankruptcy, no augmentation of imposts, no loans;' and he at once entered upon a comprehensive scheme of reform. He reduced the expenditure, augmented the public revenue without imposing new taxes, and introduced exactness of payments and fidelity to engagements into all his financial operations. He sought to break down that immunity from taxation which had been enjoyed by the privileged classes, and so effect a better distribution of the burdens of government. He established free trade in grain throughout the interior of the kingdom of France, and in every way sought to remove the fiscal barriers which prevented free intercourse between the various provinces of the country. He also issued an edict to abolish the exclusive privileges of the jurandes or trade corporations, maintaining that the free right of labour was the first and most sacred right of humanity. It need not be said that these efforts towards a more economical, efficient, and equitable administration brought him into antagonism with all the privileged orders of France. Courtiers, nobles, prelates, farmers of revenue, financiers, and the members of the trade corporations alike saw their selfish interests menaced by the innovations of the new minister, and they combined for his overthrow. Louis XVI. was too weak to resist such pressure. He had not been in full sympathy with the philosophic minister. He complained that his controller-general never went to mass. Turgot was too austere, reserved, and perhaps also too inflexible and doctrinaire; and it was certainly a tactical mistake to unite against himself so many enemies. He attempted too many reforms during the short time he was in power. It may be that he lectured the king too severely on his duty as ruler. Yet Louis greatly esteemed his minister. He had once sadly observed, 'It is only M. Turgot and I who love the people.' The end was that Turgot was dismissed after holding office for twenty months, and France drifted rapidly into the great catastrophe of 1789. He retired quietly into private life, where he occupied himself with literature and science till his death from gout, March 8, 1781.
The efforts of Turgot towards a reform of the French political system have a profound and pathetic significance. By reason of his integrity, zeal for the public good, and administrative intelligence, Turgot was the best man to undertake the regeneration of France. 'He has,' Malesherbes said, 'the head of Bacon and the heart of L'Hôpital.' In practical affairs he was the fittest and most capable representative of the new ideas; and it was natural that Voltaire and other chiefs of the new school should lament his failure as a misfortune that touched them most nearly. It really meant that the hope of a reasonable and temperate change had passed away, through the weakness of the king and the folly and selfishness of the privileged classes. 'The part of the sages was played out; room was now for the men of destiny.'
Turgot's most important work was his Réflexions sur la Formation et la Distribution des Richesses (1766). It is the highest development of the Physiocratic school, with its excellences and also some of its characteristic errors, as that agriculture is alone productive, and that there should be only one tax, that on land; and it largely anticipates the teaching of Adam Smith. See POLITICAL ECONOMY.
See Condorcet, Vie de Turgot (1786); Lavergne, Les Economistes Français au Dix-huitième Siècle (1870); Neymarck, Turgot et ses Doctrines (1885); John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, vol. ii.; Léon Say, Turgot (trans. by G. Masson, 1888); W. Walker Stephens, The Life and Writings of Turgot (1895).