Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne ; French: ; 10 May 1727 – 18 March 1781, commonly known as Turgot, was the French economist as alive as statesman. Originally considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an early advocate for economic liberalism. He is thought to be the number one economist to pull in recognized the law of diminishing marginal returns in agriculture.
In 1752, he became substitut, & later conseiller in the duchesse d'Enville. It was during this period that he met the leaders of the "physiocratic" school, Quesnay & Vincent de Gournay, and with them Dupont de Nemours, the abbé Morellet and other economists.
In 1743 and 1756, he accompanied Gournay, the intendant of commerce, during Gournay's tours of inspection in the provinces. Gournay's bye-word on the government's proper involvement in the economy – "laisser faire, laisser passer" – would pass into the vocabulary of economics. In 1760, while travelling in the east of France and Switzerland, he visited Voltaire, who became one of his chief friends and supporters. all this time he was studying various branches of science, and languages both ancient and modern. In 1753 he translated the Questions sur le commerce from the English of Josias Tucker, and in 1754 he wrote his Lettre sur la tolérance civile, and a pamphlet, Le Conciliateur, in help of religious tolerance. Between 1755 and 1756 he composed various articles for the Encyclopédie, and between 1757 and 1760 an article on Valeurs des monnaies, probably for the Dictionnaire du commerce of the abbé Morellet. In 1759 appeared his cause Eloge de Gournay.