What were Voltaire's ideas on economics?

Answer 1

Keeping it brief:

Voltaire was a fan of Adam Smith's, and in his journey to England became a proponent of the nascent market system there. He wrote quite a bit about it, and a few themes pervade his writings (alongside an ever-present anticlericalism):

1) Market-oriented economies foster cooperation between disparate groups of people: Voltaire was especially impressed with the fact that dozens of wildly different religious groups traded in the exchange as if they had no real differences, acting (as he put it) as if the only infidels were those who were bankrupt.

2) Luxury is not merely tolerable, but a desirable pursuit: the individual desire for improvement is what drives innovation and moves the economy. This is a common idea now, but at the time the idea had barely been around for a generation, and had never had so vocal and influential a proponent as Voltaire.

3) Sovereign debt service can encourage a national economy with revenue, especially when that lending is from the state's own population: while international sovereign debt can be dangerous for the investor, marketable debt issed by the state can help drive economies. Voltaire often put his money where his pen was in this regard, as a heavy investor in many different European economies at the time.