Abstract
Too late for those who could find no trace of any continuing connection between Turgot and Adam Smith, time has placed on the record evidence that the severance between the two men was actually not complete. In the first Catalogue of Smith’s library compiled by James Bonar, he cited a copy of the French national budget inscribed to Adam Smith in Turgot’s hand.
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References
J. Bonar, A Catalogue of the Library of Adam Smith (1894), p. 115.
Bonar, op. cit. (1932), p. 188.
Ibid., p. 18-20. Cf. J.-M. Quérard, La France Littéraire, ou Dictionnaire Bibliographique (1834), 6: 296. Moreau de Beaumont (1715–1785) “successively councillor to parlement, master of requests, and intendant of finances… Mémoires concernant les impositions et droits en Europe. Paris, de l’impr. roy., 1768, v vol. in-4…” J. E. T. Rogers, ed., An Inquiry, 2nd ed. (1880) identifies 18 references to the Beaumont Mémoires in Book V alone. Everything about the Mémoires points to Turgot masquerading.
Ibid., p. 102. Earlier, two Edicts: Edit du Roi of April 1763, and August 1764.
The Economic Journal, No. 21 (March, 1896), 6: 165-166, “Current Topics.”
W. J. Ashley, Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Riches. By Turgot. 1770, P. vi-vii. Cf. Société d’économie politique, Paris, Turgot. Le Ministre-L’Economiste-L’Homme, Réunion 1906, pp. 18, 20.
Ibid., idem.
G. Schelle, Oeuvres de Turgot, II, p. 31.
H. P., Baron Brougham, Lives of Men of Letters and Science who flourished in the Time of George III, II, Appendix, p. 219, Adam Smith to Hume, Paris, 6 July, 1766, begins, “I am thoroughly convinced that Rousseau is as great a rascal as you and every man here believes him to be; yet let me beg of you not to think of publishing anything to the world… Stand this ridicule, etc. etc.” The incident which gave rise to polemics was a well-meant offer extended by Hume to Rousseau at a time when he was obliged to leave the country. Exile in Scotland proved a disaster for all.
J. H. Burton, ed., Letters of Eminent Persons addressed to David Hume, p. 187. Ten letters jointly written to Hume by d’Alembert and Mlle, de l’Espinasse, pp. 186-205. “Paris, this 21st July,” 1766, d’Alembert to Hume, “… Chance willed that most of your friends, and those in particular to whom you recommended I read your letter, were gathered at Mlle. de l’Espinasse’s virtually at the moment I received it.” All in that company “were of the same opinion… that you ought to make public this whole story, complete to the last circumstance…”
Schelle, op. cit., III, p. 62. Letter of 31 August, 1769, congratulates DuPont on the excellence of a morceau on the freedom of commerce in wines. This was to be one of the twenty-five or so arrêts and lettres-patentes. On October 17, Turgot says he has received the note “proscrite” (by the censor) and is returning it, “because the explanation you have given of the caisse de Poissy is a fine thing.” This Caisse, in effect a monopoly of cattle-slaughtering, was abolished by the only one of the Six Edicts to pass.
Schelle, op. cit., II, p. 512. In a letter to DuPont of 20 February, 1766, Turgot is advising the then editor of Journal de l’Agriculture what he ought to do when he runs out of letters of the alphabet. He should start over, AB, AC, AD, and so forth, until he gets to ZA, ZB,… ZZ, and then, only then, go to AAA, etc.
See Note 28, chapter preceding.
In this spate of correspondence in 1769 and 1770, Turgot uses three terms to allude to Réflexions. One is simply richesse in singular or plural, which would not serve to identify anyone as its author, since richesse inspired a blizzard of anonymous pamphlets by some of the best-known men. DuPont himself became famous overnight for writing two. Turgot’s second term is le denier de la veuve, the widow’s mite; and his third, l’ouvrage de M. r., the work of Monsieur Y.”
Schelle, op. cit., III, p. 56. “I shall sound out the terrain myself,” Turgot reassures him, “and I hope that I shall be able to destroy the idea people have of you, however much they have it. I shall certify that you are very level-headed, which is about midway between the boiling point and the freezing point.”
Ibid., p. 56n (a).
Idem, (b).
Idem, (c).
Idem, (d). A printer’s error in Schelle’s page converts Chinki to Chinski. However, in the light of the very recent and masterly article by Earle E. Coleman in Papers, Vol. 56, First Quarter 1962, Bibliographical Society of America, it is altogether possible that the volume seen by the present writer and that seen by Schelle are entirely different typesettings. The story of Chinki resembles a physiocratic Pilgrim’s Progress in reverse.
Idem, (e). Cf. Earle E. Coleman, Papers (as above), “Ephêmérides du Citoyen, 1767–1772,” p. 23, says the identity of this contributor remains unknown.
Schelle, op. cit., III, p. 28on. At the time Turgot (and DuPont and the Oeconomistes) were writing in behalf of a commerce libre en grains, the exportation of grain had been prohibited in England also. The 1767 harvest had been bad there, too, and disturbances had broken out in many places. Restrictions were temporarily lifted, but were laid down again from 1768 through 1772.
Ephêmérides du Citoyen, 1768, TOME PREMIER (which does not prevent the sheet printed A3 [5] from reading: “1767 TOME PREMIER”).
Ibid., tome 7, Seconde Partie, Pieces Détachées, p. 107-128. At (*): “C’est la Brochure intitulée La Liberté du Commerce des Grains, toujours utile & jamais nuisible. La plupart de nos Lecteurs connaissent cet Ouvrage, bien digne à tous égards de l’éloge qu’on fait ici le Magistrat éclairé qui parle.” Cf. E. Daire & H. Dussard, Oeuvres de Turgot, I, p. 664. DuPont, in a long note on floods, etc. which have “denuded” the province, concludes, “M. Turgot a toujours cru que la persuasion était un des plus puissants ressorts de l’autorité…” Turgot thus had had “reprinted” the royal declaration and edict of 1764 and 1765 on the “liberty and circulation of grains.” To this he joined “a very fine work of M. LeTrosne, entitled, La Liberté du commerce des grains toujours utile et jamais nuisible. He “accompanied the whole with a Lettre circulaire aux officiers de police… which, spread far and wide through the province, among magistrates and sub-delegates, etc. etc., succeeded little by little in calming the disturbances (l’effervescence) and in letting the provisioning proceed in a satisfactory and effective way.” In which is seen, as DuPont saw it, the method of Turgot.
In the light of the enormous pains editors and contributors felt it necessary to take, there is no attempt made to conceal all names. Tome the 2nd, Seconde Partie, the department titled “Critiques Raisonnées,” has a Lettre by DuPont to M. de Saint-Péravy, on the subject of the perennial agricultural society prize Turgot offered for an essay, this time on “l’Effet de l’Impôt indirect.” This is immediately followed by a review of DuPont’s book, De l’Origine et du Progrès d’une Science Nouvelle; and this is followed by a “CATALOGUE of Writings composed according to the Principles of Economic Science,” in which not one name is missing from the well-known roster: Quesnay, DuPont, Mirabeau, Rivière, Baudeau, Loiseau; but of Turgot, only “T***.”
J.-M. Quérard, Les Superchéries Littéraires Dévoilées, III, p. 862. “Turgot. Ouvrages qui ont été imprimés à tort sous son nom: … II. Les Inconvénients des droits féodaux, par — (Boncerf), 1789.”
Schelle, op. cit., II, p. 515. Turgot, writing to DuPont, refers to the Programme for the essay prize he will offer, whereupon he adds the note, “P. S. Ȕ Don’t print my letter, or you’ll have me thrown into the Bastille.” The year is 1766.
Ibid., III, p. 71-72. Letter of 1 December, 1769.
Ibid., p. 73.
At Note 23 supra, mention is made of a DuPont footnote describing one more “detached piece” which, separately or in the magazine itself, Adam Smith would have had access to. In J. Bonar, A Catalogue of the Library of Adam Smith (1894), p. 58; (1932), p. 101, this is given as: Recueil de plusieurs morceaux économiques principalement sur la concurrence des étrangers dans le transport de nos Le Trosne grains. Par M. Le Trosne, avocat du Roi du Baillage d’Orléans. A Amsterdam et se trouve à Paris chez Desaint libraire, rue du Foire St. Jacques. 12mo. 1768. See also the following chapter.
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© 1964 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Lundberg, I.C. (1964). Detached Pieces. In: Turgot’s Unknown Translator. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9592-8_7
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