Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay

Who was Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay?

Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay was a French economist and intendant of commerce. He is said by some historians of economics to have coined the phrase laissez faire, laissez passer. Together with François Quesnay, whose disciple he was, he was a leader of the Physiocratic School.

Gournay's father was Claude Vincent, a merchant in Saint-Malo as well as a secretary to the king. Gournay didn't write much, but had a great influence on French economic thought through his conversations with many important theorists. He was instrumental in popularizing the work of Richard Cantillon in France.

Gournay was appointed France's intendant du commerce in 1751. One of the main themes of his term in office was his opposition to government regulations because of the way they stunted commerce. He coined the term bureaucratie to describe the situation. Gournay's disdain for government regulation of commerce influenced his disciple Turgot. His first name is often mistakenly given as "Jean," due to an error made by Turgot in his letter to Jean-François Marmontel known as In Praise of Gournay.