Question 665: It's LeGen...wait for it...

Sometime in 1680, this odd looking gentleman:

proposed to aid and assist the merchants of France in developing and promoting their economy and asked __X__ how this could be achieved. __X__ responded by saying __Y__.  __Y__ went on to become a very often used term in economics especially with reference to free trade and doing whatever the hell you want.

Identify X and tell me what Y is.
Don't bother about the gentleman in the picture.

ANSWER:

The odd looking gentleman is Jean Baptiste Colbert
But that I did not want

X - Some businessman by the name of M. Le Gendre


Y - "Laissez-nous faire" --> Laissez Faire