yazadjal.com

There is a story that the famous French mercantilist minister, Colbert, once asked a group of businessmen what he could do for them. One of the men, Legendre, is supposed to have replied, Laissez nous faire–leave us alone. Several French authors in the earlier part of the 18th century, including the Marquis d’Argenson, used the slogan laissez faire. The great Turgot attributed the rule laissez faire, laissez passer–leave things alone, let goods pass through–to Gournay. Sometimes a phrase was added suggesting the social theory behind the slogan: le monde va de lui même–the world goes by itself. Today the term laissez faire has come to mean: leave the people alone, let them be, in their economic activities, in their religious affairs, in thought and culture, in the pursuit of fulfillment in their own lives.

[written by historian Ralph Raico, emphasis mine. The quote used to be on the Laissez Faire Books site, but I can’t find the link any longer.]