Laissez-Faire

The Jesuits' summary of an Eastern doctrine of wu-wei apparently influenced the Physiocrats under Quesnay to make Laissez-faire another of the liberating ideas that typified Enlightenment thinking. For a book review on this history, see the article in PDF below by Christian Gerlach, Wu-Wei: A Study of Eurasian Economic Thought.

Of course, this aspect of history was distorted and forgotten by those of a totalitarian-mindset.