Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne (1727–1781) was an Enlightenment economist, statesman, and leading representative of the Physiocrat school. While serving as Intendant of Limoges from 1761 to 1774, he transformed one of France's poorest provinces by surveying land for fair taxation, abolishing forced road labor (the corvée), and building hundreds of miles of roads.

Appointed Comptroller-General of Finances by King Louis XVI in 1774, Turgot outlined his famous governing program: 'No bankruptcy, no tax increase, no borrowing'. In 1776, he issued his revolutionary Six Edicts, liberating the grain trade, abolishing the oppressive urban trade guilds (jurandes), and establishing equal land taxation regardless of noble status. Resistance from privileged nobles, the parlements, and Queen Marie Antoinette forced his dismissal in May 1776, fulfilling his prophetic warning to Louis XVI: 'Remember, Sire, it was weakness that brought the head of Charles I to the block'.