Pierre Samuel DuPont de Nemours, 1739-1817.

18th C. French Physiocratic economist.

Son of a Parisian watchmaker of Huguenot extraction, Pierre de Samuel Du Pont de Nemours was destined to pursue his father's craft.  However, at his mother's insistence, DuPont was given a sterling education, thus inclining him to pursue the more "lofty" calling of a man of letters.   However, his father would have none of that.  Upon his mother's death, DuPont was finally apprenticed to his father's workshop.  Dupont's neglect of the craft, his absenteeism, his continual escapades into Parisian salons, let to a violent confrontation with his father who, believing the young idler incorrigible, turned him out of his home.  

Out on his own, DuPont took up his studies with a medical doctor, but finding himself unable to handle the traumatic decisions over life-and-death of patients, decided that medicine was not his calling.  Surprisingly, perhaps out of guilt, DuPont apprenticed himself to another horologist.  This time around, he worked much more assiduously -- a task made easier by his growing interest in mechanics.  In 1763, DuPont presented his father with a watch of his own design as a token of reconciliation -- and abandoned watch-making forever.   

DuPont's new interest in mechanics had led him to contemplate pursuing a career in the Corps of army engineers.  It was while researching such a move, that he came across the works of their founder, Sebastien de Vauban.  Vauban's 1707 treatise calling for fiscal reform impressed the young DuPont and brought him into the realm of economics.   The 23-year-old DuPont de Nemours broke into print in 1763 with a critique of recent proposals to overhaul the French tax system.  He reminded reformers that the burden of a tax can be shifted around and that the people who are nominally the tax-payers are not necessarily the ones who actually pay the tax.  Although ignorant of Physiocratic doctrine, DuPont de Nemours argued that the burden of poll taxes on agricultural laborers ultimately fall on landlords.   DuPont suggested that the direct taxation of landowners would be the most efficient form of tax regime.

DuPont de Nemours' early, independent performance impressed François Quesnay and the Marquis de Mirabeau -- who recognized in his proposals the echoes of their own theory.  DuPont was immediately recruited into the Physiocratic "sect" and shielded by the wing of the Madame de Pompadour.  DuPont de Nemours absorbed the works of the Physiocratic economists and would soon became one of their most eloquent popularizers.   

In July, 1765, a business newspaper, the Gazette du Commerce founded by the Abbé Roubaud began publishing an annex of "heavier" theoretical and policy essays, entitled the Journal d'agriculture, du commerce et des finances.  In September, 1765, by the influence of well-wishers (probably Abbé Morellet and/or Trudaine), the young DuPont de Nemours was appointed as editor of the Journal. DuPont quickly transformed it into a bastion of Physiocratic doctrine. His most famous performance was his reply to a series of articles published in the Journal by the Abbé Baudeau.  DuPont de Nemours tore apart Baudeau's "Neo-Colbertiste" doctrines -- and, in the process, converted Baudeau himself to the Physiocratic cause.  

However, having irritated too many people, DuPont was dismissed as editor in late 1766.  The unemployed DuPont was hired as a secretary by Jacques Turgot, then intendant of Limousin.  It was during this time that the 29-year-old DuPont de Nemours wrote and published his most famous book, La Physiocratie (1767), effectively an edition of Quesnay's works with his own commentaries.  Although there was little that was novel in it, it was notable for harmonizing and restating Physiocratic doctrine in a coherent, authoritative fashion (indeed, he refused to include Quesnay's own early works in it, as they were not "sufficiently" Physiocratic!)  It was here, incidentally, that the term "physiocracy" or "rule of nature" was first used.   DuPont de Nemours took particular care in explaining the social welfare implications of the Physiocratic policy positions, and insisting upon their universality of application.  His 1768 pamphlet, De l'origine, was an attempt to "rewrite" the history of Physiocratic school, to make it seem less "sectarian" and simply a continuation of earlier Enlightenment economists (particularly, Gournay).  

In the meantime, DuPont's successor at the Journal, Veron de Forbonnais, had transformed the Journal into a conduit of anti-Physiocratic ""Neo-Colbertiste" thought.  The Physiocrats, incensed at this transformation, realized they had to return to print and, in 1767, they rallied to Abbé Baudeau's journal, the Ephémérides du Citoyen.  In 1768, Baudeau passed the reins of the Ephémérides over to DuPont de Nemours.   Back at the editor's desk, DuPont de Nemours managed the Ephémérides for the next few years with his typical dogmatic zeal.

In 1772, the Ephémérides were shut down by the government and DuPont was unemployed again.  The Margrave Charles Frederick of Baden immediately appointed him privy councillor of Baden and, for a couple of years, DuPont cooled his heels in Karlsruhe.  In June 1774, DuPont accepted an offer to go to Poland to serve as the tutor of Prince Czartoryski and head a committee on Polish education reform. 

DuPont had already left for Poland when, in  August 1774, Jacques Turgot was appointed as controller general of France by the new king Louis XVI.  Turgot immediately asked his old assistant to join his administration.  After a little reflection, DuPont returned from Poland late that year and was made inspector-general of manufactures.  He distinguished himself particularly in municipal reforms. When Turgot was dismissed in 1776, DuPont went down with him.  He would later write an eulogy to Turgot and help edit his works.

Although keeping his title and salary, DuPont was excluded from the post-Turgotian Necker administration and retired to his country estates. However, that did not stop DuPont from continuing to write and send memos to Necker, advising on economic policy (duly ignored). 

DuPont's star got a brief lift during the Calonne administration.   The foreign minister, Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes, as an associate and admirer of DuPont and included him in more active duties.  In 1782, DuPont was given significant responsibility during the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain, which ended up recognizing the independence of the American colonies.    It was here that DuPont made the acquaintance of several American statesmen and began an intimate correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. . To facilitate his negotiations with top-rank officials, DuPont de Nemours was raised to the rank of noble in late 1783 by the King Louis XVI.

DuPont's private life suffered a tragedy in 1784, with the death of his wife, leaving him a single father with two sons,  Elethèure Irenée and Victor.  But DuPont just buried himself in work.  DuPont de Nemours stayed on with the Calonne administration in other capacities - notably as member of special agricultural and commercial boards, advising on economic policy, writing numerous reports and memoirs.   In 1786, DuPont was reportedly one of the chief negotiators of the commercial Eden Treaty with England, liberalizing trade between the two countries. 

DuPont de Nemours was at least part of the brains behind Calonne's fiscal reforms, and he was appointed as secretary to the Assembly of Notables convened by Louis XVI in February 1787 to consider them.  But the notables condemned the reforms and ended up toppling Calonne by April.  The new government Loménie de Brienne tried to get rid of DuPont, and when that didn't work (too competent an economic expert to be dispensed with), Brienne diluted his official functions. After Brienne's own fall in August 1788, Necker returned to power, and kept DuPont on.  With the decision was made to call for the Estates-General, DuPont helped the preparations.  Nonetheless, DuPont de Nemours decided to resign as secretary and run for election as a delegate for the Third Estate of Nemours. 

DuPont de Nemours participated in the Estates-General of 1789, and after the French Revolution broke out, continued on in the Constituent Assembly, where he aligned himself with the moderate party.  Outside of the Assembly, DuPont joined the liberal club, the "Société of 1789" formed by the Marquis de Condorcet (another intimate from the Turgot years), the Duke of La Rochefoucauld and the Abbé Sièyes.  DuPont published a slew of pamphlets and committee reports during the economic reforms of 1789-91.  Famously, DuPont was one of the prominent advocates of the disestablishment of the Catholic church and the seizure of Church property by the French government (this prevailed in November 1789).  On economic matters, DuPont's position was guided more by pragmatism than Physiocratic dogmatism.  He was particularly interested in maintaining public finances of the new republic viable.  He urged restraint in expanding government spending and abolishing taxes.  He did promote the replacement of the  dîme (10% tax on gross agricultural output) with the Physiocratic single tax on the net product, but urged the maintenance of other taxes and tariff duties to keep public revenues stable.  He was particularly loud in his opposition to non-interest-bearing assignats, carefully delineating their inflationary and deflationary effects, and urged redeemable or land-backed money.   He argued for the liberalization of the grain trade in principle, but also recommended that government exercise controls in emergency situations to fight against speculative pressures.  

After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, DuPont de Nemours returned to private life, and established a print shop and put his own newspaper, L'Historien. He continued pushing out policy pamphlets, albeit at a slower rate and more reflective.  He rose to the defense of the constitutional monarchy, notably personally organizing a wide petition, gathering 20,000 signatures in a few days, in defense of Louis XVI after the Tuilieries march of June 20, 1792. Dupont's shift towards monarchism alienated Condorcet, an avid republican.  While the two had collaborated closely on economic policy during the previous two years, they now drifted apart.  The elections of September 1792, the first under universal suffrage, purged the monarchists from their seats, and the French Republic was declared.  Expelled from the political world,  DuPont lost his remaining influence on policy.  As the Republic became radicalized,  DuPont's writings became more focused on the defense of individual liberties.  His consistent attacks on the Jacobins and the Terror made him a marked man, so, in in 1793, fearing for his life, DuPont de Nemours fled into hiding in the countryside.   He was arrested in July 1794, and incarcerated in La Force.  Only the death of Robespierre a few days later saved DuPont from certain execution.  He was released by September 1794, and returned to his country estates.

During the Directory period, DuPont joined the upper chamber (Council of Ancients) of the new assembly in late 1795 as a representative for Loiret.  But it was a powerless position, and although he resumed writing, very little was on economics and mostly in political condemnations of the Directory (his 1796 Philosophie d'Univers, was a roaming collection of reflections on zoology, anatomy, etc.).  Proscribed after the coup of 18 Fructidor, DuPont de Nemours, urged on by his friend, Thomas Jefferson, departed for a brief period of exile in America, from 1799 to 1803. 

The departure was not a sudden whim.  DuPont had long nurtured a hope to establish a new community run on Physiocratic principles, to demonstrate its viability.  The reports of his son Victor (who had served as a French consul in America in the 1780s), backed up by optimistic reports from his friend Thomas Jefferson, made America seem like a paradise of cheap land.  So, DuPont de Nemours packed up his sons and their families and set off in 1799, as pioneers.  Before leaving, DuPont had raised subscriptions from French investors for the establishment of a future French Physiocratic colony on the Kentucky frontier.  It turned out to be a disappointment - American land was not as cheap as advertised, and DuPont realized it was simply not financially viable.  Nonetheless, the DuPonts had to repay their investors, so they used what remained of their capital to set up a trading firm in New York City.  The new DuPont firm soon ran into financial trouble, when it contracted for supplies for the French military expedition to Haiti in 1802.   The expedition turned out to be a fiasco and Napoleon, infuriated, refused to honor any of its contracts.   With the DuPonts facing ruin, the elder DuPont decided to return back to France by himself, to plead for patience from his investors and use his political contacts to get Napoleon to change his mind.  He left the trading company in the hands of his eldest son, Elethèure Irenée.  Arriving back in Paris in 1803, DuPont - now in his sixties, and enjoying the familiar comforts of France - was not in a hurry to get back to America.    Elethèure Irenée, a chemist by training and not particularly inclined to the import-export trade, decided to wind up the New York trading company, and use the capital to establish a new gunpowder factory on the Brandywine River in Delaware.  It had considerably more success. The family business,  E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. of Wilmington, Delaware, is today better known as the multinational industrial-chemical giant, DuPont, the creator of familiar products like nylon, cellophane, freon, teflon, lycra etc.  

In late 1803, DuPont de Nemours (senior) was offered to take up the directorship of the Banque Territoriale, a mortgage bank, but it failed shortly after when its notes were declared illegal.  Dupont subsequently busied himself as a  leading member and secretary of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, staying largely out of economic writings (save for a 1807 review of Malthus's essay on population).  Between 1808 and 1811, DuPont de Nemours was busy editing the collected works of Jacques Turgot,   He had put out the first two volumes earlier, in 1782 and 1788, now he revamped them, adding an additional seven volumes and notes of his own, including famous biographies of the old Physiocratic sect and their intellectual ancestors. After finishing Turgot, DuPont focused on re-writing and expanding a memorandum on education in America requested earlier by Jefferson.

With the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814, DuPont de Nemours was promptly made a councillor of state.  But the return of Napoleon, forced DuPont de Nemours to emigrate to the United States again, leaving Paris on March 20, 1815, the same day that Napoleon arrived in the city.  Although Napoleon's Hundred Days would soon be over, DuPont remained in the US to live out his final years. 

DuPont de Nemours lived long enough to see the birth of the Classical school.  But, contrary to the insinuations of many Classicals (e.g. Adam Smith), DuPont de Nemours insisted that Classical theory was merely a continuation of the Physiocratic thought.  He laid out his views in his critique of Malthus's population theory and in a long letter to Jean-Baptiste Say, published together in 1817.

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