Du Pont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel

Du Pont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel (1739-1817), French economist, born in Paris. His name was originally Dupont; he changed the form and later added de Nemours to avoid confusion with innumerable other Duponts in France. Only he and his sons used the full name. Du Pont was educated by his mother, and in his early 20s he became a friend and disciple of the French economist François Quesnay, leader of a group of economic theorists. The supporters of Quesnay's theories took the name physiocrats from the book explaining Quesnay's doctrines, Physiocratie, ou constitution naturelle du gouvernement le plus avantageux du genre humain (Physiocraticism, or the Natural Constitution of Government Most Advantageous to Man, 1768) written by du Pont. From 1768 to 1772 he was editor of the journal of the physiocrats, Ephémérides du citoyen (The Citizen's Historical Calendar). His articles favouring reforms, such as the abolition of slavery and of governmental restrictions on the economic life of the nation, aroused the anger of the government, however, and he was forced to leave France. After travelling in Germany, Sweden, and Poland, he was recalled to France in 1774 by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, who in that year became comptroller general of Louis XVI. Two years later, Turgot was forced to resign, and du Pont left the government service. He returned at the request of Jacques Necker, who became finance minister in 1776. In 1782 du Pont was entrusted by Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, then foreign minister, with the negotiations with Great Britain that led to the British recognition of American independence in the following year.