Pierre-Samuel du Pont

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Pierre-Samuel du Pont, engraving by L.-J. Cathelin, after a portrait by J. Ducreux

Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Pierre-Samuel du Pont was a French economist whose numerous writings were mainly devoted to spreading the tenets of the physiocratic school and whose adherence to those doctrines largely explains his conduct during his long political career.

An early work on free trade, De l’ Exportation et de l’importation des grains (1764; “On the Export and Import of Grains”), brought him the friendship of Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, whose biography he wrote (1782) and whose papers he edited (9 vol., 1809–11). When Turgot became minister of finance in 1774, du Pont served as inspector general of commerce (1774–76). He was largely responsible for the clause in the Treaty of Versailles of 1783 calling for a trade treaty between France and Great Britain, and he greatly influenced the free-trade treaty between France and Britain that was signed in 1786. For those services he was ennobled. In 1787 he became secretary to the Assembly of Notables. An adherent of a constitutional monarchy, he was a member of the Estates-General convened for 1789, in which he represented the third estate of Nemours.

One of the chief promoters of the Tennis Court oath, he played an important part in the beginnings of the French Revolution. He was opposed to the policies of the radical republicans, and he defended Louis XVI in August 1792. Though forced into hiding during the Terror and later imprisoned, he was eventually released through the help of friends. A member of the Chamber of Ancients under the Directory, he was suspected of activities on behalf of the royalists and was again arrested but quickly released.

He now planned to go to the United States. After much delay, he arrived in the United States with his sons, Éleuthère Irénée and Victor, in January 1800. For Thomas Jefferson he drew up a scheme of national education and established companies to promote Franco-American trade. Those ventures were not successful, but Éleuthère, a pupil of the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, founded a powder-manufacturing company in the United States that eventually became one of the largest chemical-manufacturing firms in the world.

In 1802 Pierre-Samuel returned to France to promote the sale of Louisiana to the United States, hoping thereby to improve Franco-American relations. He became vice president of the Paris Chamber of Commerce. He eventually became critical of Napoleon’s economic and foreign policy. In 1814 he assisted Talleyrand in restoring the Bourbons, became secretary-general of the provisional government, and was made councillor of state by Louis XVIII. During the Hundred Days he left France and went to the United States, where he remained.