Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, baron de l’Aulne summary

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, baron de l’Aulne, (born, May 10, 1727, Paris, France—died March 18, 1781, Paris), French administrator and economist. He entered the royal administrative branch of the magistracy in 1753, then became intendant (governor) of Limoges (1761–74), where he instituted economic and administrative reforms. A physiocrat, in 1766 he wrote his best-known work, Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth. In 1774 he was appointed comptroller general by Louis XVI and introduced his Six Edicts to expand economic reforms. His effort to abolish the corvée (unpaid forced labour by peasants) was opposed by the privileged classes, and he was dismissed in 1776.