Anne Robert Jacques Turgot Biography

A member of a noble family, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne, administrator under Louis XV, comptroller general under Louis XVI, attempted to bring financial reform to France but was defeated by the privileged classes. A rather fat, shy, and awkward bachelor, his serious demeanor was tinged with humor, but he failed to convince the king of necessary reforms and died in public disgrace.

Turgot, the third son in an old and respected Norman family, was born on May 10, 1727, in Paris. His father, Michel-Étienne, held high office in Paris and was head of the city's municipality from 1729 until 1740. There were three careers open to young men of Turgot's status at the time: civil administration, the military, and the church. As the third son, with his two older brothers having taken the civil and military positions, Turgot was destined for the church. Accordingly, he entered the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in 1743 and the Sorbonne in 1749. However, just before ordination in 1751, he announced his intention of leaving the church, claiming it was impossible for him to live under false pretences and indicating he would instead enter service for the Crown.

Over the next few years, Turgot held various offices and became interested in economics. He met Adam Smith, the great English economist, and also frequented the intellectual salons of Paris. He contributed articles to various publications, developing a distrust of government intervention in the economy and becoming a champion of free trade. Turgot served as deputy solicitor general and later a counselor magistrate in the parlement (supreme court of law) in Paris in 1752. According to the custom of the time, in 1753 he bought the post of examiner of petitions, a position that often led to appointment as intendant, chief administrator of a district.

In 1761, Turgot had made enough of a name for himself to be noticed by the king. Louis XV appointed him intendant of Limoges, a poor and backward region and a less than desirable post. Over the next 13 years, Turgot tried, with little support from the central government and not much from the local people, to impose widespread reforms. Although historians dispute his success, he did make some accomplishments and demonstrated a flair for administration and economics. He abolished forced labor on the roads by peasants, known as the corvee, substituting a tax. He instituted a fairer means of tax collection and brought tax records up to date in the district. He set up workshops for the unemployed, paid for by funds from landowners. Fighting the famine of 1770-1771, he kept up a free commerce in grain and quelled riots against its movement.

Apart from his administrative duties in Limoges, Turgot continued his interest in economics. He published his best-known work in 1766: Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth. His ideas predated Adam Smith's classic study of 1776.

On August 24, 1774, Turgot was appointed comptroller general (akin to prime minister) by the young and inexperienced king, Louis XVI, the last king of France in the line of Bourbon monarchs before the French Revolution of 1789. By this time, Turgot saw the need for major governmental reforms, but sensing the opposition of the priveleged classes, he proceeded cautiously. In 1776, he presented the king with the Six Edicts. The first four, which took away certain dues and offices, had little opposition. The fifth, which suppressed the guilds of Paris, was not seriously opposed, but the sixth, which would abolish the corvee and pay for public roads by a tax on landowners, brought the wrath of the privileged upon Turgot's head. The priveleged were not about to lose this privelege. Everyone, even the queen, was against him, and finally, even Louis, who had supported his minister at first, could not resist the pressure. In May 1776, he requested Turgot's resignation.

Turgot's Six Edicts were the last attempt to reform the French monarchy from within. Before his dismissal, he warned the king that his weakness under pressure would bring disaster, citing Charles I of England who lost his head under similar circumstances. Indeed, Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were guillotined on charges of counterrevolution in 1792. Turgot, who retired in public disgrace, had died in Paris on March 18, 1781.