The Turgot Collection

This outstanding book was ten years in the making, but it is finally here, and the result is startling. Here you will find 525 pages of Turgot's writings — the bulk of his life's work — all beautifully organized.

Turgot (a key influence on Jefferson) was the great French liberal thinker of the 18th century — not only a proto-Austrian, but also a fantastic defender of human liberty in every respect.

As Murray Rothbard writes,

"Not only was Turgot a busy administrator, but his intellectual interests were wide-ranging, and most of his spare time was spent reading and writing, not in economics, but in history, literature, philology, and the natural sciences. His contributions to economics were brief, scattered, and hasty. His most famous work, 'Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth' (1766), comprised only fifty-three pages. This brevity only highlights the great contributions to economics made by this remarkable man.

"In the history of thought, the style is often the man, and Turgot's clarity and lucidity of style mirrors the virtues of his thought, and contrasts refreshingly to the prolix and turgid prose of the physiocrat school."

Of course, the book includes the pioneering "Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth." But it also covers economics, history, social theory, philosophy, and even religion, and contains vivid selections from Turgot's correspondence with Voltaire, Hume, Condorcet, and other great Enlightenment thinkers.

Murray Rothbard's brilliant essay on Turgot and the influence of his theories on subsequent economic thought is the preface. David Gordon provides lucid and helpful introductions to each section.

Turgot might be the greatest, least known of the Enlightenment liberals. This volume will certainly contribute to a revival of interest in his work.

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