Étienne de Silhouette

Étienne de Silhouette ( born July 5, 1709 Limoges, † January 20, 1767 in Bry -sur- Marne) was a French Controller-General of Finances, contrôleur général des finances under Louis XV .. He had this administrative function from 4 March to November 21, 1759 held.

Life and work

His father Arnaud de Silhouette was from Biarritz and had Basque origins. De Silhouette undertook a grand tour will visit London, where he studied the British economy and the British financial system. Then he made ( Baltasar Gracian El Politico ) historical studies and a study of the UK financial system to gain attention translations from English ( Alexander Pope, Henry Bolingbroke, William Warburton The Alliance in between Church and State ) and Spanish. He was adviser to the Parlement of Metz, secretary to the Duke of Orleans, in 1749 a member of the Commission to regulate the Anglo-French interests in Canada ( Acadia ) and Royal representative at the India Company ( Mississippi company ).

On 4 March 1759, he was on the advice of the Marquise de Pompadour to the Controller General of Finance, contrôleur général des finances ordered. He should bring the torn through the Seven Years' War finances back in order. Having, however, taxes on land and other signs of wealth for rich aristocrats introduced ( were the nobility and the church at that time not taxed ), pensions of civil servants cut and pushed through other measures such as the melting of gold and silver goods under martial law, he earned strong opposition and was released on 21 November 1759 by his office again. His successor in office was Henri -Leonard Bertin.

He retired then back to Bry -sur- Marne. In addition to historical and philosophical works he left translations from English and Spanish and travel reports. A published under his name in 1772 Political will is apocryphal.

Numerous cartoons appeared in his time as Minister of Finance and his name was a household word silhouette in France for a man who only supplied or à la silhouette as a synonym for cheap goods a shadow existence. It was said that he would decorate his castle avarice not with paintings, but with silhouettes that arose at that time as a cheap alternative to paintings. By critics who saw it as cheap imitation and brought the name Silhouette fact, the term was also applied to silhouettes ( silhouettes ).

Works (selection)

• Voyage d' Espagne et de Portugal (31 août - 24 décembre 1729 ) ( 1730)
• Idée générale du gouvernement et de la morale of Chinois Tiree, particulièrement of ouvrages de Confucius. ( 1729 )
• Idée générale du gouvernement et de la morale of Chinois, et réponse à trois critiques. Quillau, Paris ( 1731)