Turgot's Mentor In Economics And Administration example essay topic

Introduction Anne Robert Jaques Turgot, baron l' Aul ne, was born in Paris on May 10, 1727 to a noble French family of Normandy. Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, who had furnished the state with numerous public officials, Turgot would achieve public renown as Intendant of Limoges and later as Controller General of all France. Although Turgot ended his public career in unfortunate circumstances, being dismissed by Louis XVI for ineffectiveness, his political theories became a major influence in the remaining years of the Old Regime. The depth of Turgot's economic thought was not recognized at the time because it largely went against what the ruling aristocracy wanted to hear.

His clairvoyance is much more fully noted in light of the last two centuries. Furthermore, Turgot was one of the King's last controller-generals before the French Revolution ended the monarchy. When his political and economic ideals are considered against this backdrop their importance as well as their contradictory nature become apparent. Turgot's main contribution to economic theory is his Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Riches. Apart from this short but highly systematic account of the nature of economic development, Turgot's other relevant writings are sparse and far from cohesive.

Since this paper will consider his economics with regard to his political thought, only Turgot's theories on the nature of government influence, free trade, and taxes will be examined. Furthermore, an explanation of Turgot's theory on administration will be provided. In gaining an understanding of Turgot's political and economic thought a powerful example of the problems that manifested themselves in the revolution is provided. Turgot was the model of an enlightened, reform-minded administrator and this may be glimpsed in the liberality of his economic ideas. However, while he certainly advised reforms in administration, they were simply intended so that the King could more effectively centralize political power. Laissez-Faire and Free Trade: As a young man Turgot was very close to Claude Marie Vincent, the Marquis de Gournay.

Vincent was not only a friend but also Turgot's mentor in economics and administration. It is in tribute to Vincent that after his death Turgot developed his ideas on laissez-faire government in a paper called, the 'Elegy to Gournay' (1759). Within this paper Turgot condemns the foolishness of mercantilist regulation of industry while expounding the benefits of free domestic and foreign trade following from the presence of free exchange. In a detailed analysis of the market process, Turgot writes that self-interest is the prime mover in the market process and that in a free market the individual interest must always coincide with the general interest. It can be assumed that the buyer will purchase from the seller who will give him the lowest price for the most suitable product. Furthermore, sellers will naturally sell their best merchandise at the highest competitive price.

Conversely, Turgot says that when governmental restrictions are present, consumers are compelled to buy inferior goods at higher prices. Only by free exchange can sellers be assured the profit needed to match production while at the same time providing the consumer with the best goods at the lowest prices. Governments are present not to interfere with the market but to protect citizens from injustice and to ensure national security against foreign menace. Turgot did allow that it was possible for the consumer to get cheated by a fraudulent seller.

However, Turgot says that common sense will provide the remedy because it is logical that the cheated consumer will learn from his experience and respond by not returning to the dishonest merchant. Word will spread of the sellers fraudulence and he will fall into discredit and be weeded out of the market. The market has thus solved its own problem through the logical sequence of rational consumers protecting their individual interests. On the other hand to think that government would be able to prevent such malpractice through regulation is foolish.

It would certainly not be able to handle every instance of fraud and as it is compelled to regulate more and more the progress of industry would suffer. Turgot also touched on the subject of taxation by calling for a single tax on the 'net product' of the land. Turgot feelings on taxation are found in more an outline than a paper called 'Plan for a Paper on Taxation in General' written in 1763. He felt that taxes on towns tended to shift backward to agriculture and illustrated how taxation crippled commerce. Taxes on capital destroyed accumulated thrift and seriously hampered industry.

Turgot, therefore, advocated a single land tax. Unfortunately, Turgot's tax theories concentrated on the destructive forms and largely avoided discussing the supposed merits of the single land tax. Turgot's preceding ideas are largely in accordance with Physiocrat teaching. The Physiocrats were a group of enlightened economic reformers whose theories of loosening government restriction and imposing a single land tax became popular in the 1760's. While Turgot is largely in agreement in this area, it is important to notice, in passing, that in other economic spheres Turgot often breaks with and improves Physiocrat doctrines.

To label him just another land-productivity theorist in the mold of the Physiocrats is a grave injustice. However, for our purposes, one may make that connection. It is fundamentally important to understand Turgot's laissez-faire ideals in conjunction with his place in history. In a time of mounting economic crisis in France, Turgot liberal economics were fresh and exciting. That they did not succeed was due not to their faultiness as a whole but rather to opposition in the parlements and bad harvests. The proposal of the single land tax was of course alarming and disagreeable to the land-owning nobility and they voiced their disapproval in the assemblies.

Furthermore, bad harvests had risen grain prices and aroused popular unrest against his freeing of the grain trade from government restriction. The main idea in Turgot's theory was that if the government would allow people to pursue their own freely chosen goals economic progress would inevitably result. This idea was captured and implemented in later generations through the writings of classical economists such as Adam Smith. Turgot's economics promised a better life for the poorer classes in French society and the expansion of their freedom through weakening the central government. His political ideas promised a better life for French society in quite a different manner.

Political Administration Turgot advocated various reforms in political administration as well. However, their implications for the power of central government were entirely the opposite. Turgot wanted to consolidate the power of the King through the reform of France's institutions. He hoped to, "substitute... a spirit of order and union which would mobilize the forces and means of your [the King] nation for the common good, gathering them together in your hand and making them easy to direct". This could be accomplished not by studying the origins and history of administration but by thoroughly understanding the rights and interests of men. The remedies that Turgot provided to the various problems he encountered were an attempt to establish a more powerful and efficient central administration.

Turgot found that the chief problem in the present administration was the absence of a written constitution. The result of this is that the nation is poorly united. People are concerned only with their own personal interest and do not recognize or understand their relationship to the nation as a whole. The King is therefore forced to handle endless disputes or claims by the people as to what is right under the law.

If the realm had a standard organization and a clearly recognized relationship, the King could then rule effectively through general laws. Turgot also felt a main problem was that individuals were poorly educated as to what their duty was to the state. They do not recognize what they are given by the state and, therefore, view what is asked for in return, in the form of taxes, as exploitation by the strong. However, since they can do nothing about it they live their lives grumbling about the government and seeking any way to deceive the authorities.

This could be solved by national education provided by the government. By establishing a sense of duty and unity in the individual the remedy would work its way up through the town to the provinces and so on. Turgot also wished to entirely revamp the way officials were chosen. By giving the local people the power to elect their officials through election, Turgot hoped to satisfy the people's demand for involvement while at the same time providing worthy officials bound to the crown. If these reforms were followed Turgot promised his King, .".. a new people, a people above all others. Instead of the cowardice, corruption, intrigue, and greed Your Majesty has found everywhere, there would be virtue, altruism, honor and zeal".

Turgot illustrates a profound respect for the King and his office throughout his writings. Due to his position as controller-general and the time period this is to be expected. However, the key implication in Turgot's politics is his advocacy of centralizing policies. Turgot saw the nation as a whole, united under the guidance of the central government. This is important because it is keeping with the idea of continuity from the Old Regime through the Revolution. The Revolution is often viewed as an abrupt and total rift in French history in which everything changes.

Alexis de Toqueville profoundly rejects this view in his The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Through extensive study of records and viewing the French Revolution as just a spectacular part of a whole, Toqueville argues that the Revolution merely continued a process of political centralization that had been going on for some time. The fact that Turgot, a most enlightened and forward thinking man, truly concerned with the welfare of the people, was such an advocate of centralization is strong evidence for Toqueville's argument. Conclusion Anne Robert Jaques Turgot was clearly a liberal man for his time.

His economic theories foreshadow those of the classical school and Adam Smith. However, while he certainly advised wide reform of the political sphere he did so in an attempt to centralize power under the King. These views when viewed together seem somewhat inconsistent. On the one hand Turgot advised the repeal of government intervention in the economic sphere so that the French people could better exercise their freedom. However, in the political sphere, although he gave the people some say in the local elections, in doing so he sought to produce a more efficient system under the power of one man. These two views have remarkable relevance to the push and pull of the French Revolution.

It is safe to say that both Turgot and the French Revolution had the betterment and freedom of the French people as their primary goal. Turgot openly saw centralization as the answer. The attempt of the French Revolution was entirely different. In its most radical phase it sought to establish universal male suffrage and to give the individual a real say in how he was governed. The irony is that during this phase there occurred the most lopsided centralization.

Their goals were never implemented and Napoleon proceeded to step in and establish perhaps the most effective centralized government. If one forgets about the local elections, Napoleon administration is in many ways exactly what Turgot advocated. National education, and effective municipal administration are both present. Economically it is exactly the opposite as Napoleon intervened in every possible. In conclusion, Turgot is bit of a mystery.

His political and economic theory illustrate agreement with aspects of both pluralism and monism. Furthermore, Turgot's inconsistency goes a long way to illustrating the process of centralization that continued through the French Revolution despite any attempt at reversing it.

Bibliography

Baker, Keith Michael. The Old Regime and the French Revolution Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Rothbard, Murray N. Economic Thought Before Adam Smith vol. 1., Aldershot: England, 1995.
Spiegel, Henry William. The Growth of Economic Thought Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
Toqueville, Alexis de. The Old Regime and the French Revolution New York: Anchor Books; Doubleday, 1955.
Turgot, A.J.R. Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Riches New York: Reprints of Economic Classics, 1963.