Pierre le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert or Boisguillebert (; 17 February 164610 October 1714) was a French lawmaker and a
Jansenist
Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century theological movement within Roman Catholicism, primarily active in France, which arose as an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of free will and divine grace in response to certain development ...
, one of the inventors of the notion of an economic
market.
Early life
He was born at Rouen of an ancient noble family of
Normandy
Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
, allied to that of
Corneille. He received his classical education in Rouen, and was also taught at the
Petites écoles de Port-Royal, entered the magistracy and became judge at
Montivilliers, near
Le Havre
Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
. In 1690 he became president of the
bailliage of Rouen, a post which he retained almost until his death, leaving it to his son.
Taxation proposals
In his two leadership positions he made a close study of local economic conditions, personally, supervising the cultivation of his lands, and entering into relations with the principal merchants of Rouen. He was thus led to consider the misery of the people under the burden of
taxation
A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal person, legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to Pigouvian tax, regulate and reduce nega ...
. In 1695 he published his principal work, ''Le détail de la France; la cause de la diminution de ses biens et la facilité du remède''. In it he drew a picture of the general ruin of all classes of Frenchmen, caused by the bad economic regime. In opposition to
Colbert's
mercantilist
Mercantilism is a nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources for one-sided trade. ...
views he held that the wealth of a country consists, not in the abundance of money which it possesses but in what it produces and exchanges. The remedy for the evils of the time was not so much the reduction as the equalization of the imposts, which would allow the poor to consume more, raise the production and add to the general wealth. He demanded the reform of the ''
taille'', the suppression of internal
customs
Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...
duties and greater freedom of trade. In his ''Factum de la France'', published in 1705 or 1706, he gave a more concise résumé of his ideas. But his proposal to substitute for all aides and customs duties a
single capitation tax of a tenth of the revenue of all property was naturally opposed by the
tax farmers and found little support.
Indeed, his work, written in a diffuse and inelegant style, passed almost unnoticed.
Saint-Simon relates that he once asked a hearing of the
comte de Pontchartrain, saying that he would at first take him for a fool, then he would see that he deserved attention, and that eventually, he would be satisfied with his system. Pontchartrain, who was besieged with innumerable advice givers, began to laugh replying that he would go no further than the first, and turned his back on him. With
Michel de Chamillart, whom he had known as
intendant
An intendant (; ; ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Success ...
of Rouen (1689–1690), there was a plan to experiment with Boisguilbert's ideas in one province but the plan was abandoned when it was realized that the effort would provoke the collapse of the existing tax system before the experiment began. Upon the publication of
Vauban's, ''
La Dîme royale'' in 1707 which had much in common with Boisguilbert's plan, Boisguilbert published ''Supplément au détail de la France''. Both Vauban's and Boisguilbert's books were condemned. In addition, Boisguilbert was exiled to
Auvergne for six months. At last in 1710 the controller-general,
Nicolas Desmarets, established a new tax, the tenth (''dixième''), which had some analogy with the project of Boisguilbert. Instead of replacing the former taxes, however, Desmarets simply added his ''dixième'' to them.
Publications
In 1712 appeared a ''Testament politique de M. de Vauban'', which is simply Boisguilberts ''Détail de la France''. Vauban's ''Dîme royale'' was formerly wrongly attributed to him. Boisguilberts works were collected by
Daire in the first volume of the ''Collection des grands économistes''. His letters are in the ', vol. i., published by
A. M. de Boislisle.
A complete study of Boisguilbert, his ideas and his writings was published by the
Institut National d'Études Démographiques
An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes ca ...
in 1966.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boisguilbert, Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de
1646 births
1714 deaths
French economists
Physiocrats
18th-century French nobility
Jansenists
Lawyers from Rouen
17th-century French judges
17th-century French nobility