M. de Gournay

The author of the axioms *Laissez faire, laissez passer*, which are the sum and substance of the free trade principles of political economy, and perhaps the pithiest and completest exposition of the doctrine of a particular school ever made, was Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay, who was born at St. Malo in 1712, and died at Paris in 1759. In early life he was engaged in trade, and subsequently became Honorary Councillor of the Grand Council, and Honorary Intendant of Commerce. He translated, in 1742, Josiah Child's *Considerations on Commerce and on the Interest on Money*, and Culpepper's…