 The main external influences for late eighteenth century French Revolutionary philosophers were Adam Smith and Thomas Paine. Smith’s Wealth of Nations had been a huge success in France and his economic thought was particularly influential for Turgot, France’s finance minister before Necker, and Condorcet, officer of the mint. Condorcet offered a copy of his Life of Turgot to Smith. While Smith and Turgot seem to have developed their theory of economics independently, there was certainly some correspondence between the two at a later stage.