Du Pont de Nemours, << doo PONT duh nuh MUR, >> Pierre Samuel (1739-1817), was a French economist and statesman. His son Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founded what is now the DuPont Company (officially, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company).
Du Pont was born in Paris on Dec. 14, 1739. He first studied medicine but then turned to economics. He became famous as a member of a group of economists known as the physiocrats, who believed that governments should interfere less in economic life. The physiocrats also began the first organized study of how economies work. Du Pont wrote extensively on physiocratic ideas, and he had a major impact on French economic policies at the time.
Du Pont was originally a supporter of the French Revolution (1789-1799). His more moderate views on the French monarchy raised difficulties for him, however. He fled with his family to the United States in 1799. He died on Aug. 7, 1817, in Delaware, at a site near the Brandywine River.
