Page "Laissez-faire" Paragraph 4

The laissez faire slogan was popularized by Vincent de Gournay, a French intendant of commerce in the 1750s.

Gournay was an ardent proponent of the removal of restrictions on trade and the deregulation of industry in France.

Gournay was delighted by the Colbert-LeGendre anecdote, and 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 the Physiocrats, who credit both the laissez-faire slogan and the doctrine to Gournay.