Anne Turgot. Historical engraving of a portrait of the French economist and statesman Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de L'Aulne (1727-81). Turgot, being a physiocratic economist, believed that land was the source of all wealth and so it was only justifiable to tax agricultural products. He also wrote on money lending and free trade. In 1774, after being appointed Controller General of finance, he began reforming taxation and expenditure. However, the powerful opposition to his desire to tax the nobility and stop commercial monopolies led to his resignation. Engraving by W.T. Fry from a picture in the Louvre, France.