TURGOT, Anne Robert Joseph (toor-go), Baron de l'Aulne, French statesman, born in Paris, 10 May, 1727; died there, 20 March, 1781. He studied for the church and was prior of Sorbonne in 1749, but resigned in 1751, was made deputy attorney-general and councillor in the parliament of Paris in 1752, a master of the tribunal of the requests in 1753, and intendant of Limousin in 1761. He made many improvements in the administration of that province, and was named, 20 July, 1774, secretary of the navy. During his short administration he devised a plan that afterward gave a vigorous impulse to the prosperity of the French colonies in America. On 24 August, 1774, he succeeded Abbe Terray as comptroller of the finances. He set immediately to work to reform abuses and put France upon a sound financial basis. He found the greatest opposition at court and in the king's council to carrying on his proposed reforms that might have averted the revolution of 1789, and there were riots in Paris and other cities in May, 1775. Louis XVI., who said, "Only M. Turgot and I love the people," held a levee of justice at the parliament of Paris, 12 May, 1776, and obliged that body to register Turgot's edicts on finance. The Count d'Artois, Louis XVI.'s aunts, and Count de Maurepas secured Turgot's dismissa1, 12 May, 1776, and he retired to Paris, where he devoted himself to philosophical labors. Owing to his friendship for Benjamin Franklin and his love for the cause of freedom, he was in part instrumental in 1778 in bringing about the treaty of alliance with the United States, and composed, at the request of Richard Price, with whom he corresponded to the last, "Reflexions sur la situation des Americains des Etats-Unis" (Paris, 1779). At the request of Franklin he wrote "Traite des vrais principes de l'imposition" (1780). Turgot's principal works are " Lettre sur le papier monnaie" (1745)" " Sur la tolerance" (1752) ; " Reflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses" (1771)" and " Sur la liberte du commerce des grains" (1772). His life has been written by the Marquis de Condorcet (London, 1786), and his complete works were edited by Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours (9 vols., Paris, 1808-'11).