Jakob Mauvillon

Jakob Mauvillon (1743-03-08 in Leipzig – 1794-01-11 in Braunschweig), son of Eleazar Mauvillon, was an 18th century figure in German liberalism. He was of French Huguenot descent. He was a professor of politics at Brunswick. He advocate a radical laissez-faire philosophy, which included advocacy of privatizing all the schools and the postal system, to be funded privately rather than by taxes. He speculated that the security functions of the state might be voluntarily-funded as well. [Raico, Ralph (2004) [http://www.mises.org/story/1787 "Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century"] Ecole Polytechnique, [http://www.crea.polytechnique.fr/index.htm Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee] , Unité associée au CNRS]

Besides adocating laissez-faire in economic matters he also "expresses a radical libertarianism that centers on freedom of the press and expression" as revealed in a letter to the librarian of the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuttel, Ernst Theodor Langer. He said he thinks that "the real barbarians are those who put obstacles in the way of press freedom, and hinder research in theology, philosophy and politics; in short, those who issue decrees about censorship, edicts about religion and who forbid people to read or to think." [Wood, Dennis. Benjamin Constant: A Biography, Routledge (UK) 1993, p. 123]

Mauvillon was a mentor to the French liberal Benjamin Constant.

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