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''Laissez-faire'' (, ) is an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from government interference such as regulations, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies. The phrase ''laissez-faire'' is part of a larger French phrase and literally translates to "let (it/them) do", but in this context usually means to "let go".〔(Laissez-faire ), Business Dictionary〕 ==Etymology== According to historical legend, the phrase stems from a meeting in about 1681 between the powerful French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and a group of French businessmen led by a certain M. Le Gendre. When the eager mercantilist minister asked how the French state could be of service to the merchants and help promote their commerce, Le Gendre replied simply "''Laissez-nous faire''" ("Let us do (we want to do )").〔(Journal Oeconomique ) 1751, Article by the French minister of finance.〕 The anecdote on the Colbert-Le Gendre meeting was related in a 1751 article in the ''Journal Oeconomique'' by the French minister and champion of free trade, René de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson – which happens to also be the phrase's first known appearance in print.〔M. d'Argenson, "Lettre au sujet de la dissertation sur le commerce du marquis de Belloni', Avril 1751, ''Journal Oeconomique'' (p. 111 ). See A. Oncken, ''Die Maxime Laissez faire et laissez passer, ihr Ursprung, ihr Werden'', 1866〕 Argenson himself had used the phrase earlier (1736) in his own diaries, in a famous outburst: The ''laissez faire'' slogan was popularized by Vincent de Gournay, a French Physiocrat and intendant of commerce in the 1750s, who is said to have adopted the term from François Quesnay's writings on China. It was Quesnay who coined the term ''laissez-faire, laissez-passer,''〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Quesnay.html )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/487095/Francois-Quesnay )〕 laissez-faire being a translation of the Chinese term 無為 wu wei and mo wai in Cantonese. Gournay was an ardent proponent of the removal of restrictions on trade and the deregulation of industry in France. Gournay was delighted by the Colbert-LeGendre anecdote,〔According to J. Turgot's "Eloge de Vincent de Gournay," '' Mercure'', August, 1759 (repr. in ''Oeuvres of Turgot'', vol. 1 (p. 288 ).〕 and forged it into a larger maxim all his own: "''Laissez faire et laissez passer''" ('Let do and let pass'). His motto has also been identified as the longer "''Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!''" ("Let do and let pass, the world goes on by itself!"). Although Gournay left no written tracts on his economic policy ideas, he had immense personal influence on his contemporaries, notably his fellow Physiocrats, who credit both the ''laissez-faire'' slogan and the doctrine to Gournay.〔Gournay was credited with the phrase by Jacques Turgot ("Eloge a Gournay", ''Mercure'' 1759), the Marquis de Mirabeau (''Philosophie rurale'' 1763 and ''Ephémérides du Citoyen'', 1767.), the Comte d'Albon (,"Éloge Historique de M. Quesnay", ''Nouvelles Ephémérides Économiques'', May, 1775, pp. 136–37. ) and DuPont de Nemours (Introduction to ''Oeuvres de Jacques Turgot'', 1808–11, Vol. I, pp. 257, 259 (Daire ed.)) among others〕 Before d'Argenson or Gournay, P.S. de Boisguilbert had enunciated the phrase "on laisse faire la nature" ('let nature run its course').〔"Tant, encore une fois, qu'on laisse faire la nature, on ne doit rien craindre de pareil", P.S. de Boisguilbert, 1707, ''Dissertation de la nature des richesses, de l'argent et des tributs''.〕 D'Argenson himself, during his life, was better known for the similar but less-celebrated motto "''Pas trop gouverner''" ("Govern not too much").〔DuPont de Nemours, ''op cit'', p .258. Oncken (''op.cit'') and Keynes (''op.cit''.) also credit the Marquis d'Argenson with the phrase "''Pour gouverner mieux, il faudrait gouverner moins''" ("To govern best, one needs to govern less"), possibly the source of the famous "That government is best which governs least" motto popular in American circles, attributed variously to Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Henry Thoreau.〕 But it was Gournay's use of the 'laissez-faire' phrase (as popularized by the Physiocrats) that gave it its cachet. ''Laissez-faire'' was proclaimed by the Physiocrats in the eighteenth-century France, thus being the very core of the economic principles, and was more developed by famous economists, beginning with Adam Smith.〔Fine, Sidney. ''Laissez Faire and the General-Welfare State''. United States: The University of Michigan Press, 1964. Print〕 "It is with the physiocrats and the classical political economy that the term "laissez faire" is ordinarily associated."〔Macgregor, Economic Thought and Policy (London, 1949), pp. 54–67〕 The book ''Laissez Faire and the General-Welfare State'' mentions that, "The physiocrats, reacting against the excessive mercantilist regulations of the France of their day, expressed a belief in a "natural order" or liberty under which individuals in following their selfish interests contributed to the general good. Since, in their view, this natural order functioned successfully without the aid of government, they advised the state to restrict itself to upholding the rights of private property and individual liberty, to removing all artificial barriers to trade, and to abolishing all useless laws."〔 In England, a number of "free trade" and "non-interference" slogans had been coined already during the 17th century. But the French phrase ''laissez faire'' gained currency in English-speaking countries with the spread of Physiocratic literature in the late 18th century. The Colbert-LeGendre anecdote was relayed in George Whatley's 1774 ''Principles of Trade'' (co-authored with Benjamin Franklin) – which may be the first appearance of the phrase in an English language publication.〔Whatley's ''Principles of Trade'' are reprinted in ''Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol.2'', (p. 401 )〕 ''Laissez-faire'', a product of the Enlightenment, was "conceived as the way to unleash human potential through the restoration of a natural system, a system unhindered by the restrictions of government."〔Gaspard, Toufick. ''A Political Economy of Lebanon 1948–2002: The Limits of Laissez-faire''. Boston: Brill, 2004. ISBN 978-9004132597〕 In a similar vein, Adam Smith viewed the economy as a natural system and the market as an organic part of that system. Smith saw ''laissez-faire'' as a moral program, and the market its instrument to ensure men the rights of natural law.〔 By extension, free markets become a reflection of the natural system of liberty.〔 "For Smith, ''laissez-faire'' was a program for the abolition of laws constraining the market, a program for the restoration of order and for the activation of potential growth."〔 However, Adam Smith,〔 and the notable classical economists, such as Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo, did not use the phrase. Jeremy Bentham used the term, but it was probably James Mill's reference to the "''laissez-faire''" maxim (together with "''pas trop gouverner''") in an 1824 entry for the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' that really brought the term into wider English usage. With the advent of the Anti-Corn Law League, the term received much of its (English) meaning. Adam Smith first used the metaphor of an "invisible hand" in his book ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' to describe the unintentional effects of economic self-organization from economic self-interest.〔Andres Marroquin, ''Invisible Hand: The Wealth of Adam Smith'', The Minerva Group, Inc., 2002, ISBN 1-4102-0288-7, p. 123.〕 The idea lying behind the "invisible hand", though not the metaphor itself, belongs to Bernard de Mandeville and his ''Fable of the Bees''. In political economy, that idea and the doctrine of ''laissez-faire'' have always been closely related.〔John Eatwell, The Invisible Hand, W.W. Norton&Company, 1989, pp. Preface x1.〕 Some have characterized the invisible hand metaphor as one for ''laissez-faire'',〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The mathematical century: the 30 greatest problems of the last 100 years (2006) Piergiorgio Odifreddi, Arturo Sangalli, Freeman J Dyson, p. 122 )〕 though Smith never actually used the term himself.〔Roy C. Smith, Adam Smith and the Origins of American Enterprise: How the Founding Fathers Turned to a Great Economist's Writings and Created the American Economy, Macmillan, 2004, ISBN 0-312-32576-2, pp. 13–14.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Laissez-faire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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