Jacques Necker
Jacques Necker ( born September 30, 1732 in Geneva, Switzerland, † April 9, 1804 in Coppet ) was a Swiss banker, finance minister under Louis XVI, husband of the writer and Madame Necker Salonnière and father of Madame de Stael. .
Necker's father, Charles Frederick Necker (1686-1762) from Kuestrin in Brandenburg (now Poland ), Professor of Law, was appointed after the publication of some of his writings on international law professor of public law at the University of Geneva and citizens of the Republic Genf.Seine mother was the Jeanne Gautier (* 1692 ), she was married to her husband since January 7, 1726. The couple had two children, and Jacques Necker, a brother Louis Necker. Her other son Jacques Necker was sent in 1747 as an employee of the Bank of M. Vernet, a friend of his father, to Paris. Soon after, he founded together with another Geneva bank Thellusson & the famous Necker. Thelluson oversaw the branch in London while Necker ran the business in Paris. Both partners became very rich by loans to the Treasury and by speculation in grain. 1763 Necker fell in love with Madame de Verménou, the widow of a French officer. During a visit to Geneva, he finally met Suzanne Curchod, the daughter of a pastor near Lausanne (which had previously been engaged to the historian Edward Gibbon ), brought to Paris in 1764 and married her. She encouraged her husband to pursue a public career.
Necker was so syndic or director of the French East India Company. After he had there found his financial management skills to the test, he defended it in 1769 in a strategic treatise against the attacks of André Morellet. Meanwhile, Madame Necker entertained the most enlightened personalities of the political, financial and literary world of Paris in her salon; her Fridays were as much frequented as the assembly of Madame Geoffrin and Tuesdays of Madame Helvetius. In 1773 Necker won for a eulogy on Colbert the price of the Académie Française, and in 1775 he published his Essai sur la législation et le commerce of grains, in which he attacked the free trade policy of Turgot.
Minister of Finance under Louis XVI.
His wife now believed he could succeed as a great financier, after which he made his share of the bank to his brother Louis. In October 1776, he was Louis XVI. ( contrôleur général des finances ) appointed Finance Minister of France, initially only with the title of Director of the Treasury, and from 1777 as Director General of Finance, directeur général des finances. Specifically, he held this position from June 29 1777 to May 19, 1781. He tried to steer the finances back into regular lanes by more evenly distributed the waist ( poll tax ), the vingtième d'industrie abolished, and monts de piété einrichtete.
However, its most important financial measure was the attempt to the French debt volume and the introduction of annuities under guarantee by the state to finance. The application of the financing measures was too difficult to be performed within a short time, and Necker pointed only to the guidelines to be followed out, rather than to complete the process. In all these things he treated the French finance banker for more than a competent political economist. At Turgot, the most famous economists of his time, he was not enough zoom. Politically did the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment Director General of Finance not much to avert the impending revolution, and its establishment of provincial assemblies was only a fearful application of Turgot ausgefeiltem plan for reorganization of the administration of France. After all, he ran successfully in 1780 the Abolition of Torture.
In 1781 Necker Compte rendu au roi wrote his, a report to the king about government finances. About this, the public was also the first time insight into the government revenue and expenditure.
Dismissal and banishment
Even in 1787 Necker was dismissed from his office; his deposition, however, is less due to his report as the influence of Marie Antoinette, whose plans in favor of the Duke of Guines he had defeated.
In retirement, he occupied himself with literature and with his only child, his daughter Anne Louise Germaine was born in 1766 Necker, 1786 the Ambassador of Sweden and married Madame de Staël was.
Necker but expressed his French on matters of state and was banished from Paris in 1787 because of his attack on his successor Calonne means of a lettre de cachet.
French Revolution
The importance which should gain public opinion in the French Revolution has already demonstrated its 1788th Under the influence of Madame Necker Necker literary circles was considered the only minister who could stop the deficit, and was re-appointed as Director General of Finance in September.
He ended the revolt in the Dauphiné, legalized by the local assembly, and then prepared the convocation of the Estates-General. During the first months of 1789 he was regarded as the savior of France. His behavior at the first coming together of the Estates-General, however, showed that he regarded only as an assembly, the grant only money, but should not organize reforms. However, since the convening of the Estates-General and the double vote of the third estate had come to its recommendation about, and since he had allowed that the stalls were jointly deliberate and vote, he was identified by the Court as the cause of revolution. On 11 July he was ordered to leave France immediately.
His dismissal contributed much to the storming of the Bastille in, whereupon the king zurückberief him again. In every town through which he traveled, he was received with joy, but in Paris he proved once again that he was not a statesman. Because he thought he could save France alone, he refused to cooperate with Mirabeau and La Fayette. He caused the king in September to accept the suspensive veto, by which he lost his main prerogative. However, in the decree of November 7, he insisted that ministers were not allowed to be elected by the Assembly. Financial policy, he turned to extreme measures such as the issue of assignats. His popularity waned, and in September 1790, he resigned from his post, without this being big regrets.
Last years
Not without difficulty reach Necker Coppet on Lake Geneva, where he had acquired in 1784 a castle. Here he occupied himself with literature. After his wife's death in 1794 he lived under the care of his daughter, Madame de Stael and Madame Necker de Saussure his niece. His time was over, and his books had no political influence more. A temporary excitement was caused by the advance of the French armies in 1798, when he burned most of his political papers. Necker died 1804 in Coppet.
Honors
- An island discovered by Jean -François de La Pérouse was " Ile Necker " named in his honor.
Works
- Réponse au mémoire de M. l' abbé Morellet sur la Compagnie des Indes, 1769
- Éloge de Jean -Baptiste Colbert, 1773
- Sur la Législation et le commerce of grains, 1775
- Mémoire au roi sur l' établissement the administrations provinciales, 1776
- Lettre au roi, 1777
- Compte rendu au roi, 1781
- De l' administration des finances de la France, 1784, 3 vol. in-8 °
- Correspondance de M. Necker avec M. de Calonne. (29 janvier -28 février 1787), 1787
- De l', importance of the opinions religieuses, 1788
- De la Morale naturelle, you Bonheur des sots suivie, 1788
- Supplément nécessaire à l', importance of the opinions religieuses, 1788
- Sur le compte rendu au roi en 1781: nouveaux éclaircissements, 1788
- Rapport fait au roi dans son conseil par le ministre des finances, 1789
- Derniers conseils au roi, 1789
- Hommage de M. Necker à la nation française, 1789
- Observations sur l' avant - propos du " Livre rouge ", v. 1790
- Opinion relative ment au décret de l' Assemblée nationale, concernant les titres, les noms et les armoiries, v. 1790
- Sur l' administration de M. Necker, 1791
- Réflexions présentées à la nation française sur le procès Intente à Louis XVI, 1792
- You pouvoir dans les grands exécutif États, 1792
- De la Révolution française, 1796
- Cours de morale religieuse, 1800
- Dernières vues de politique et de financement, offertes à la nation française, 1802
- Histoire de la Révolution française depuis l' Assemblée des notables jusques et y compris la journée du 13 vendémiaire an IV (18 octobre 1795), 1821
Mémoire au roi sur l' établissement the administrations provinciales, 1776 Lettre au roi, Compte rendu au roi, 1777, 1781 De l' administration des finances de la France, 1784, 3 vol. in-8 ° Correspondance de M. Necker avec M. de Calonne. (29 janvier -28 février 1787), 1787 Sur le compte rendu au roi en 1781: nouveaux éclaircissements, 1788