Turgot

tur-go' (1727-1781), a French minister of finance. He is said to have descended from a Scottish family long settled in Normandy. He intended at first to become a priest, but turned from the service of the church to public life. In 1761 he was made intendant of the department of Limoges, a position he held for thirteen years, to the great relief of the peasantry. In 1774 Louis XVI, being in distress, made him minister of finance. Turgot immediately set about reform. He held office but twenty months. Six of these were occupied in putting down peasant insurrections organized by his opponents, the nobility, and six precious months were spent ill in bed, yet Turgot left a reputation for work accomplished. He abolished the custom of forcing the starving peasants to build roads and carry military supplies for nothing. He allowed peasants and dealers to sell their grain without paying taxes at the town gate. He cut down the frivolous expenses of the court, and cut off many pensions. "No bankruptcy, no increase of taxation, no borrowing," said he to the king. The clergy and nobility whom he prepared to saddle with a part of the burden carried by the peasants were too much for him, however. Turgot was dismissed from office in 1776. He was an able financier, a man of truth, unselfishness, and fidelity. It is sufficient to say that if he had been kept in office, and if his plans had been carried out, the economic reforms of the French Revolution would have taken place by degrees and without bloodshed. He had no idea, however, of a government by the people; his ideal was government for the people by a beneficent despot. See Octroi