Editing Jacques Necker (section)

{{short description|French statesman (1732–1804)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name             = Jacques Necker
| office           = [[Prime Minister of France|Chief Minister of the French Monarch]]
| image            = Necker, Jacques - Duplessis.jpg
| caption          = Portrait by [[Joseph Duplessis]], c. 1781
| monarch          = [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]
| predecessor      = [[Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil|Baron of Breteuil]]
| successor        = [[Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin|Count of Montmorin]]
| monarch2         = [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]
| office2          = [[Controller-General of Finances]]
| predecessor2     = [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne]]
| monarch1         = [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]
| office3          = Director-General of the Royal Treasury
| predecessor1     = [[Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne|Archbishop de Brienne]]
| successor1       = [[Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil|Baron of Breteuil]]
| successor2       = [[Joseph Foullon de Doué]]
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1732|9|30|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Geneva]], [[Republic of Geneva]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1804|4|9|1732|9|30|df=y}}
| death_place      = Geneva, [[Léman (department)|Léman]], [[French Consulate|France]]
| spouse           = {{Marriage|[[Suzanne Curchod]]|1764|1794|end=died}}
| children         = [[Germaine de Staël|Germaine Necker]]
| term_start       = 16 July 1789
| term_end         = 3 September 1790
| term_start1      = 25 August 1788
| term_end1        = 11 July 1789
| term_start2      = 25 August 1788
| term_end2        = 11 July 1789
| monarch3         = [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]
| term_start3      = 29 June 1777
| term_end3        = 19 May 1781
| predecessor3     = Louis Gabriel Taboureau des Réaux
| successor3       = [[Jean-François Joly de Fleury]]
| signature        = Signatur Jacques Necker.PNG
}}

'''Jacques Necker''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒak nɛkɛʁ|lang}}; 30 September 1732 – 9 April 1804) was a [[Republic of Geneva|Genevan]] banker and statesman who served as [[List of Finance Ministers of France|finance minister]] for [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]. He was a reformer, but his innovations sometimes caused great discontent. Necker was a [[constitutional monarchist]], a [[political economist]], and a [[Morality|moralist]], who wrote a severe critique of the new principle of [[equality before the law]].<ref name="Craiutu1">{{Cite conference |last=Craiutu |first=Aurelian |date=2018-03-19 |title=A Voice of Moderation in the Age of Revolutions: Jacques Necker's Reflections on Executive Power in Modern Society |url=https://ostromworkshop.indiana.edu/pdf/seriespapers/2018spr-colloq/craiutu-paper.pdf |conference=Ostrum Workshop Spring 2018 Colloquium |pages=6}}</ref>

Necker initially held the finance post between July 1777 and 1781.<ref name="Kropotkin1">{{cite book | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 | chapter=Chapter 5 | author=Peter Kropotkin | year=1909 | translator=N.F. Dryhurst | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=217}}</ref> In 1781, he earned widespread recognition for his unprecedented decision to publish the [[Compte rendu]] – thus making the country's budget public – "a novelty in an [[absolute monarchy]] where the state of finances had always been kept a secret."<ref name="Craiutu2">{{Cite book |last=de Staël |first=Germaine |title=Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolutions |date=2008 |publisher=Liberty Fund |isbn=9780865977327 |editor-last=Craiutu |editor-first=Aurelian |pages=viii |chapter=Introduction |id={{ProQuest|<!-- insert ProQuest data here --> }}}}</ref> Necker was dismissed within a few months.<!--This account on the king was critical in creating political and social conditions that contributed to the outbreak of the [[French Revolution]] in 1789.--> By 1788, the inexorable compounding of interest on the national debt brought France to a fiscal crisis.<ref name="Sargent">{{Cite journal |last1=Sargent |first1=Thomas J. |author-link=Thomas J. Sargent |last2=Velde |first2=Francois R. |date=June 1995 |title=Macroeconomic Features of the French Revolution |url=http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/SargentVeldeJPE1995.pdf |journal=The Journal of Political Economy |volume=103 |issue=3 |pages=481|doi=10.1086/261992 }}</ref> Necker was recalled to royal service. His dismissal on 11 July 1789 was a factor in causing the [[Storming of the Bastille]]. Within two days, Necker was recalled by the king and the assembly. Necker entered France in triumph and tried to accelerate the [[tax reform]] process. Faced with the opposition of the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|Constituent Assembly]], he resigned in September 1790 to a reaction of general indifference.