Victor de Riqueti, Marquis de Mirabeau (French:[miʁabo]; 5 October 1715 – 13 July 1789) was a Frencheconomist of thePhysiocratic school. He was the father ofHonoré, Comte de Mirabeau andAndré Boniface Louis Riqueti de Mirabeau. He was, in distinction, often referred to as theelder Mirabeau as he had a younger brother,Jean-Antoine Riqueti de Mirabeau (1717–1794).
Mirabeau was born inPertuis. He was brought up very sternly by his father, and in 1728 joined the army. He took keenly to campaigning, but never rose above the rank ofcaptain, owing to his being unable to get leave at court to buy a regiment. In 1737 he came into the family property on his father's death, and spent some pleasant years till 1743 in literary companionship withLuc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues and the poetLefranc de Pompignan, which might have continued had he not determined to marry not for money, but for landed estates. The lady whose property he fancied was Marie-Geneviève, daughter of a M. de Vassan, a brigadier in the army, and widow of the marquis de Saulveboef, whom he married without previously seeing her on 21 April 1743. In the same year, Mirabeau was made a Knight of theRoyal and Military Order of St. Louis.[1]
The event that led Mirabeau to devote himself to political economy was undoubtedly his work on a manuscript ofRichard Cantillon'sEssai sur la nature du commerce en général, which he had in his possession as early as 1740.[2] He elaborated a commentary of this text that gradually became what became hisAmi des hommes.
While in garrison atBordeaux Mirabeau had made the acquaintance ofMontesquieu (1689−1755),[3] and after retiring from the army he wrote his first work, hisTestament Politique (1747), which demanded for the prosperity of France a return of the Frenchnoblesse to their old position in the Middle Ages. in 1749, his son Honoré Gabriel was born. This work was followed in 1750 by a book on theUtilité des états provinciaux, which was attributed to Montesquieu himself. In 1756 Mirabeau made his first appearance as a political economist by the publication of hisL'Ami des hommes ou Traité de la population ("The friend of Man, or treatise on the population"). This work has been often attributed to the influence, and in part even to the pen, ofQuesnay, the founder of the economical school of the physiocrats, but was really written before the marquis had made the acquaintance of the physician ofMadame de Pompadour.[1]
In 1760 he published hisThéorie de l'impot, in which he attacked with all the vehemence of his son the farmers-general of the taxes, who got him imprisoned for eight days atVincennes, and then exiled to his country estate atBignon nearNemours. At Bignon the school of the physiocrats was really established, and the marquis in 1765 bought theJournal de l'agriculture, du commerce, et des finances, which became the organ of the school. He was recognized as a leader of political thinkers by PrinceLeopold of Tuscany, afterwards emperor, and byGustav III of Sweden, who in 1772 sent him the Grand Cross of theOrder of Vasa.[1]
But his marriage had not been happy; he had separated from his wife in 1762, and had, he believed, secured her safely in the provinces by alettre de cachet, when in 1772 she suddenly appeared inParis, and commenced proceedings for a separation. One of his own daughters had encouraged his wife to take this step. He was determined to keep the case quiet, if possible, for the sake of Mme de Pailly, a Swiss lady whom he had loved since 1756. But his wife would not let him rest; her plea was rejected in 1777, but she renewed her suit, and, though Honoré had pleaded his father's case, was successful in 1781. This trial quite broke the health of the marquis, as well as his fortune; he sold his estate at Bignon, and hired a house atArgenteuil, where he lived quietly till his death.[1]
The marquis's younger brother,Jean Antoine Riquetti, thebailli (d. 1794), served with distinction in thenavy, but his brusque manners made success at court impossible. In 1763 he became general of the galleys ofMalta. In 1767 he returned to France and took charge of the château de Mirabeau, helping the marquis in his disastrous lawsuits.[1]
Mirabeau was nicknamed "Friend of Man", after his workL'Ami des Hommes.[citation needed]
He was the first to employ the term "social science" in French in 1767.[4]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mirabeau, Victor Riqueti, Marquis de".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 570.