Anne Robert Jacques Turgot

French economist and statesman (Baron de l'Aulne), a leading Enlightenment reformer and early advocate of laissez-faire. As Controller-General of Finances under Louis XVI (1774–1776), he attempted fiscal and administrative reforms, including free trade in grain, abolishing the corvee, and suppressing guilds. He authored 'Reflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses' (1766).