Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay
French economist and intendant of commerce
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Saint-Malo, Brittany, France
About Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay
- Jacques Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (French: [d? gu?n?]; 28 May 1712, Saint-Malo – 27 June 1759, Cádiz), a French economist, became an intendant of commerce.
- Some historians of economics believe that he coined the phrase laissez faire, laissez passer.
- Evidence was to be found when the French State parted the West Indies Company privilege - monopoly - on the slave trade.
- He is also credited with coining the term "bureaucracy".
- 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 became instrumental in popularizing the work of Richard Cantillon in France.Gournay was appointed an intendant du commerce in 1751.
- One of the main themes of his term in office was his opposition to government regulations because of what he saw as the way they stunted commerce.
- He coined the term bureaucratie (literally "government by desks") to describe the situation.
- Gournay's disdain for government regulation of commerce influenced his disciple Turgot.Gournay's 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.A street in Saint-Malo, the Rue Vincent-de-Gournay, takes its name from him.
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