Ionică Tăutu

Ionică Tăutu (usual rendition of Ion Tăutu; 1798–1828) was a Moldavian low-ranking boyar, Enlightenment-inspired pamphleteer, and craftsman ("an engineer by trade", according to Alecu Russo).

The last in a succession of boyars who advanced reforms during the Phanariote rule, Tăutu stood for the interests of a coalition of low-ranking nobility which aimed to protect itself against competition from modern developments, while adopting various liberal and Romanian nationalist principles in order to counter the growing political power of Moldavian princes. The entire group was referred to as cărvunari, an antiquated Romanian rendition of the Italian carbonari (although, unlike the latter, they were not organized as a secret society); the reference was to remain a denominator for radical groups in both Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) until the 1848 Wallachian revolution.

In 1822, under the rule of Ioan Sturdza (the first non-Phanariote prince in Moldavia), Ionică Tăutu advanced a thorough constitutional project, which soon became highly controversial. The new law proposed habeas corpus, free trade, as well as a radical definition of private ownership which denied confiscation under any circumstances; at the same time, it called for a reform of the traditional government by the prince and the estates of the realm (the Boyar Divan), which placed virtually all powers with the latter - thus attempting to preserve privileges obtained by boyars in the previous decades. Nevertheless, Tăutu was a cautious adversary of the French Revolution, which he likened to "the anarchy of crowds".

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