Laissez-Faire and John Law’s Premature Invention of “Futures”

Robert U. Ayres ()
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Robert U. Ayres: INSEAD

Chapter Chapter 7 in The History and Future of Economics, 2023, pp 73-86 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The term “laissez-faire” has been traced to a meeting that took place around 1681 between Louis XIV’s Controller-General of Finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a mercantilist, and a group of French merchants, including one M. Le Gendre. When Colbert asked how the French state could help promote commerce, Le Gendre replied simply: “Laissez-nous faire” (“leave it to us”). The anecdote on the Colbert–Le Gendre meeting appeared in a 1751 article in the Journal économique, written by French minister and champion of free trade René de Voyer, Marquis d’Argenson—also the first known appearance of the term in print. Argenson himself had used the phrase earlier (1736) in his own diaries, published later.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-26208-1_7

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