Turgot: The Man Who First Put Laissez-Faire Into Action

Although few of Turgot's writings were published in his lifetime, he was ablaze with ideas for liberty. Turgot was much too able a man to write anything insignificant, observed intellectual historian Joseph A. Schumpeter. Commenting on his most important work, a slim volume, Schumpeter noted that it "contains a theory of barter, price, and money that, so far as it goes, is almost faultless ... comprehensive vision of all the essential facts and their interrelations plus excellence of formulation."