So, said these “physiocrats,” let nature (in Greek, physis) rule (kratein); let men invent, manufacture, and trade according to their natural instincts; or, as Gournay is said to have said, laissez faire—“let him do” as he himself thinks best. The famous phrase was already old, for about 1664, when Colbert asked businessman Legendre, “What should we [the government] do to help you?” he answered, “Nous laisser faire—let us do it, let us alone.”
