Editing Laissez-faire (section)

== Etymology and usage ==
The term ''laissez-faire'' likely originated in a meeting that took place around 1681 between powerful French [[List of Finance Ministers of France|Controller-General of Finances]] [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] and a group of French businessmen headed by M. Le Gendre. When the eager [[Mercantilism|mercantilist]] minister asked how the French state could be of service to the merchants and help promote their commerce, Le Gendre replied simply: "Laissez-nous faire" ("Leave it to us" or "Let us do [it]", the French verb not requiring an [[Object (grammar)|object]]).<ref>[http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AJournal_oeconomique_-_janvier_1751.djvu "Journal Oeconomique"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200430073342/https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Journal_oeconomique_-_janvier_1751.djvu |date=2020-04-30 }}. 1751 article by the French minister of finance.</ref>

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 Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson|René de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson]]—also the first known appearance of the term in print.<ref>M. d'Argenson, "Lettre au sujet de la dissertation sur le commerce du marquis de Belloni', Avril 1751, ''Journal Oeconomique'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=k4ABAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA111 p. 111] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221026125133/https://books.google.com/books?id=k4ABAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA3-PA111 |date=2022-10-26 }}. See A. Oncken, ''Die Maxime Laissez faire et laissez passer, ihr Ursprung, ihr Werden'', 1866</ref> Argenson himself had used the phrase earlier (1736) in his own diaries in a famous outburst:
{{blockquote|Laissez faire, telle devrait être la devise de toute puissance publique, depuis que le monde est civilisé [...]. Détestable principe que celui de ne vouloir grandir que par l'abaissement de nos voisins ! Il n'y a que la méchanceté et la malignité du cœur de satisfaites dans ce principe, et l'intérêt y est opposé. Laissez faire, morbleu ! Laissez faire !!<ref>As quoted in J. M. Keynes, 1926, "The End of Laissez Faire". Argenson's ''Mémoirs'' were published only in 1858, ed. Jannet, Tome V, p. 362. See A. Oncken (''Die Maxime Laissez faire et laissez passer, ihr Ursprung, ihr Werden'', 1866).</ref><br /><br />Let go, which should be the motto of all public power, since the world was civilized [...]. [It is] a detestable principle of those that want to enlarge [themselves] but by the abasement of our neighbours. There is but the wicked and the malignant heart[s] [who are] satisfied by this principle and [its] interest is opposed. Let go, for God's sake! Let go!!<ref>Original somewhat literal translation using the [https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/laissez-faire#fr French Wiktionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605064658/https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/laissez-faire#fr |date=2019-06-05 }}.</ref>|sign=René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson}}

[[Vincent de Gournay]], a French [[Physiocracy|Physiocrat]] and intendant of commerce in the 1750s, popularized the term ''laissez-faire'' as he allegedly adopted it from [[François Quesnay]]'s writings on China.<ref>{{cite book|last=Baghdiantz McCabe|first=Ina|title=Orientalism in Early Modern France: Eurasian Trade Exoticism and the Ancien Regime|year=2008|publisher=Berg Publishers|isbn=978-1-84520-374-0|pages=271–272}}</ref> Quesnay coined the phrases ''laissez-faire'' and ''laissez-passer'',<ref>{{cite web|title=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=31 May 2023|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/487095/Francois-Quesnay|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|access-date=23 June 2022|archive-date=22 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522121904/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/487095/Francois-Quesnay|url-status=live}}</ref> ''laissez-faire'' being a translation of the Chinese term ''[[wu wei]]'' (無為).<ref name=Clarke>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=J. J.|title=Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought|year=1997|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-13376-0|page=50}}</ref> Gournay ardently supported the removal of restrictions on trade and the deregulation of industry in France. Delighted with the Colbert–Le Gendre anecdote,<ref>According to J. [[Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune|Turgot]]'s "Eloge de Vincent de Gournay," '' Mercure'', August, 1759 (repr. in ''Oeuvres of Turgot'', vol. 1 [https://books.google.com/books?id=5KQALAckPr8C&pg=PA288 p. 288] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112154804/https://books.google.com/books?id=5KQALAckPr8C&pg=PA288 |date=2022-11-12 }}.</ref> he forged it into a larger maxim all his own: "Laissez faire et laissez passer" ("Let do and let pass"). His motto has also been identified as the longer "Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même !" ("Let do and let pass, the world goes on by itself!"). Although Gournay left no written tracts on his economic policy ideas, he had immense personal influence on his contemporaries, notably his fellow Physiocrats, who credit both the ''laissez-faire'' slogan and the doctrine to Gournay.<ref>Gournay was credited with the phrase by [[Jacques Turgot]] ("Eloge a Gournay", ''Mercure'' 1759), the [[Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau|Marquis de Mirabeau]] (''Philosophie rurale'' 1763 and ''Ephémérides du Citoyen'', 1767.), the Comte d'Albon ("Éloge Historique de M. Quesnay", ''Nouvelles Ephémérides Économiques'', May, 1775, pp. 136–137) and [[Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours|DuPont de Nemours]] (Introduction to ''Oeuvres de Jacques Turgot'', 1808–11, Vol. I, pp. 257, 259, Daire ed.) among others.</ref>

Before d'Argenson or Gournay, [[Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert|P. S. de Boisguilbert]] had enunciated the phrase "On laisse faire la nature" ("Let nature run its course").<ref>"Tant, encore une fois, qu'on laisse faire la nature, on ne doit rien craindre de pareil", P.S. de Boisguilbert, 1707, ''Dissertation de la nature des richesses, de l'argent et des tributs''.</ref> D'Argenson himself during his life was better known for the similar, but less-celebrated motto "Pas trop gouverner" ("Govern not too much").<ref>DuPont de Nemours, ''op cit'', p. 258. Oncken (''op.cit'') and Keynes (''op.cit''.) also credit the Marquis d'Argenson with the phrase "''Pour gouverner mieux, il faudrait gouverner moins''" ("To govern best, one needs to govern less"), possibly the source of the famous "That government is best which governs least" motto popular in American circles, attributed variously to [[Thomas Paine]], [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[Henry Thoreau]].</ref>

The Physiocrats proclaimed ''laissez-faire'' in 18th-century France, placing it at the very core of their economic principles and famous economists, beginning with [[Adam Smith]], developed the idea.<ref name="Fine, Sidney 1964">Fine, Sidney. ''Laissez Faire and the General-Welfare State''. United States: The University of Michigan Press, 1964. Print</ref> It is with the Physiocrats and the classical [[political economy]] that the term ''laissez-faire'' is ordinarily associated.<ref>Macgregor, ''Economic Thought and Policy'' (London, 1949), pp. 54–67</ref> The book ''Laissez Faire and the General-Welfare State'' states: "The physiocrats, reacting against the excessive mercantilist regulations of the France of their day, expressed a belief in a 'natural order' or liberty under which individuals in following their selfish interests contributed to the general good. Since, in their view, this natural order functioned successfully without the aid of government, they advised the state to restrict itself to upholding the rights of private property and individual liberty, to removing all artificial barriers to trade, and to abolishing all useless laws."<ref name="Fine, Sidney 1964"/>

The French phrase ''laissez-faire'' gained currency in English-speaking countries with the spread of Physiocratic literature in the late 18th century. [[George Whatley]]'s 1774 ''Principles of Trade'' (co-authored with [[Benjamin Franklin]]) re-told the Colbert-LeGendre anecdote; this may mark the first appearance of the phrase in an English-language publication.<ref>Whatley's ''Principles of Trade'' are reprinted in ''Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol.2'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=C2QUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA401 p. 401] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112154809/https://books.google.com/books?id=C2QUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA401 |date=2022-11-12 }}.</ref>

[[Herbert Spencer]] was opposed to a slightly different application of ''laissez faire''—to "that miserable ''laissez-faire''" that leads to men's ruin, saying: "Along with that miserable ''laissez-faire'' which calmly looks on while men ruin themselves in trying to enforce by law their equitable claims, there goes activity in supplying them, at other men's cost, with gratis novel-reading!"<ref>''Justice Part IV of Ethics'' (1892). p. 44.</ref>

As a product of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], ''laissez-faire'' was "conceived as the way to unleash human potential through the restoration of a natural system, a system unhindered by the restrictions of government".<ref name="Gaspard, Toufick 2004">Gaspard, Toufick. ''A Political Economy of Lebanon 1948–2002: The Limits of Laissez-faire''. Boston: Brill, 2004. {{ISBN|978-90-04-13259-7}}{{page needed|date=March 2022}}</ref> In a similar vein, Adam Smith{{When|date=December 2016}} viewed the economy as a natural system and the market as an organic part of that system. Smith saw ''laissez-faire'' as a moral program and the market its instrument to ensure men the rights of [[natural law]].<ref name="Gaspard, Toufick 2004"/> By extension, [[free market]]s become a reflection of the natural system of liberty.<ref name="Gaspard, Toufick 2004"/> For Smith, ''laissez-faire'' was "a program for the abolition of laws constraining the market, a program for the restoration of order and for the activation of potential growth".<ref name="Gaspard, Toufick 2004"/>

However, Smith<ref name=asoae/> and notable [[Classical economics|classical economists]] such as [[Thomas Malthus]] and [[David Ricardo]] did not use the phrase. [[Jeremy Bentham]] used the term, but it was probably{{original research inline|date=December 2016}} [[James Mill]]'s reference to the ''laissez-faire'' maxim (together with the "Pas trop gouverner" motto) in an 1824 entry for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' that really brought the term into wider English usage. With the advent of the [[Anti-Corn Law League]] (founded 1838), the term received much of its English meaning.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Abbott P. Usher|title=Economic History – The Decline of Laissez Faire|year=1931|journal=American Economic Review|volume=22|issue=1, supplement|pages=3–10|display-authors=etal}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=July 2017}}

Smith first used the metaphor of an [[invisible hand]] in his book ''[[The Theory of Moral Sentiments]]'' (1759) to describe the unintentional effects of economic self-organization from economic self-interest.<ref>Andres Marroquin, ''Invisible Hand: The Wealth of Adam Smith'', The Minerva Group, Inc., 2002, {{ISBN|1-4102-0288-7}}, p. 123.</ref> Although not the metaphor itself, the idea lying behind the invisible hand belongs to [[Bernard Mandeville|Bernard de Mandeville]] and his ''[[Fable of the Bees]]'' (1705). In political economy, that idea and the doctrine of ''laissez-faire'' have long been closely related.<ref>John Eatwell, ''The Invisible Hand'', W. W. Norton & Company, 1989, pp. Preface, x1.</ref> Some have characterized the invisible-hand metaphor as one for ''laissez-faire'',<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mathematicalcent0000odif|title=The mathematical century: the 30 greatest problems of the last 100 years (2006) Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Arturo Sangalli, Freeman J Dyson, p. 122|access-date=30 July 2013|isbn=978-0-691-12805-4|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=22 October 2006|url-access=registration}}</ref> although Smith never actually used the term himself.<ref name=asoae>Roy C. Smith, ''Adam Smith and the Origins of American Enterprise: How the Founding Fathers Turned to a Great Economist's Writings and Created the American Economy'', Macmillan, 2004, {{ISBN|0-312-32576-2}}, pp. 13–14.</ref> In ''Third Millennium Capitalism'' (2000), Wyatt M. Rogers Jr. notes a trend whereby recently "conservative politicians and economists have chosen the term 'free-market capitalism' in lieu of ''laissez-faire''".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rogers|first1=Wyatt M.|chapter=1: Economic Forces in Modern Capitalism|title=Third Millennium Capitalism: Convergence of Economic, Energy, and Environmental Forces|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7adF9D3OJ0EC|series=ABC-Clio ebook|location=Westport, Connecticut|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|date=2000|page=38|isbn=978-1-56720-360-8|access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref>

American [[individualist anarchists]] such as [[Benjamin Tucker]] saw themselves as economic ''laissez-faire'' socialists and political individualists while arguing that their "anarchistic socialism" or "individual anarchism" was "consistent [[Manchesterism]]".<ref>Tucker, Benjamin (1926). ''Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin R. Tucker''. New York: Vanguard Press. pp. 1–19.{{ISBN?}}</ref>