André Morellet (1727–1829) was one of the remarkable cohort of Enlightenment abbés whose thought and action left a considerable mark on the eighteenth century and the Revolution. The eldest of 14 children born into the petty bourgeoisie in Lyon, he studied with the Jesuits and briefly considered joining them, but ended up following the intentions of his father, a paper merchant, who sent him to Paris, first to a collège, then (thanks to a well-to-do uncle) to the Sorbonne, “society and house.” There he frequented certain of the great political and intellectual figures of his time and discovered Locke, Bayle, Spinoza, Buffon and Voltaire in the margins of his theological studies. Supporting himself would always be a concern for him, at times a veritable obsession. Rejecting the priesthood, he became a preceptor in high society, which allowed him to travel as well as eat properly; then he began to write, a profession that would never offer him real independence, but would open doors, notably government doors, where he obtained subventions to assist him in a grand project, a monumental Dictionary of Commerce, an enterprise that he would never be able to complete.

Thanks to his remarkable longevity, he lived several successive lives. Educated in theology, he nevertheless signaled his good intentions to the Voltairians in an acerbic pamphlet against the treatment of Protestants. He spent six weeks in the Bastille for another pamphlet excoriating Palissot, one of the “anti-philosophes” whom he made it a specialty to combat. His causticity made him most effective in man-to-man combat; Voltaire christened him “Mords-les” (“bite them”). As translator-commentator he brought to light an inquisition manual that detailed the horrors of that system of thought-control, heaped praise on Beccaria in a robust rendering of Dei delitti e delle pene (“On crimes and punishments”), translated Pope, Jefferson and William Robertson into French; a translation of Wealth of Nations was never to appear. Turgot introduced him to Gournay and the Trudaines, who provided him with an initiation in political economy; one of his first writings in this domain, an appeal for the freedom to make and trade printed textiles [toiles peintes], was commissioned by the elder Trudaine (Daniel-Charles), a high “economic” state official, in charge of trade, manufacturing, bridges and roads, and certain sectors of the treasury. Not much involved