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The Life of M. Turgot, Comptroller General of the Finances of France, in the Years 1774, 1775, and 1776; Written by the Marquis of Condorcet, of the French Academy of Sciences; and Translated from the French with an Appendix.

Authors of source text

Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet

Contributions

Benjamin Vaughan
translator
Joseph Johnson
publisher

Related resources

is translation of
La Vie de M. Turgot has translation
has paratext
Preface to the translation of M. Turgot's life. paratext

Notes

Giancarlo De Vivo and Gabriel Sabbagh identify Benjamin Vaughan as the anonymous translator of this partial life of Turgot, by Condorcet, 'The First Translator in English of Turgot's "Réflexions sur la formation et distribution des richesse": Benjamin Vaughan', in History of Political Economy, 47: 1 (2015), 186-199.

The translation includes several radicalising appendices, including a preface by the translator advising the English audience to learn about the French absolutist resistance to reform from this French example -- indicating that the English government was, similarly, resisting reform -- while at the same time distancing (him)self from the materialist and anti-religious claims of Condorcet. The translation is also addressed to Lord Shelburne, directing the text both to the English (reforming) governance, and to the elite reformist Bowood circle around Shelburne (which included Vaughan). See Leech, 'Cosmopolitanism, dissent, and translation' (Bologna: Bononia UP, 2020), 133-35.