Commerce and the State: Turgot, Condorcet and Smith

Emma Rothschild

Economic Journal, 1992, vol. 102, issue 414, 1197-210

Abstract: This paper considers eighteenth century arguments about commerce and the state. A. R. J. Turgot and M. J. A. N. Condorcet, like Adam Smith, were strongly opposed to government intervention in the corn trade, but they showed that famines arise because of failures in many different markets and they favored intervention in labor markets to alleviate scarcity. They described the role of government policies to ensure minimum subsistence in achieving sustainable equilibrium, especially in countries engaged in a long process of market reform. Turgot tried to implement such policies in France. Their arguments suggest criteria for evaluating government intervention in different markets that are of continuing practical and theoretical importance. Copyright 1992 by Royal Economic Society.

Date: 1992
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