Editing Jacques Necker (section)

==Early life and career==

Necker was born on 30 September 1732 in Geneva to Karl Friedrich Necker and Jeanne-Marie Gautier.<ref name="HDS1">{{HDS|15905}}</ref> His father was a lawyer from Küstrin in [[Neumark]], [[Prussia]] (now [[Kostrzyn nad Odrą]], [[Poland]]). After publishing some works, Karl Friedrich was appointed professor of [[public law]] at the [[University of Geneva|Academy of Geneva]] in 1725, and later served in the city's [[Council of Two Hundred]].<ref name="HDS2">{{HDS|25543|Necker|author=Jean de Senarclens}}</ref> After studying at the Academy of Geneva, Necker moved to [[Paris]] in 1748 and became a clerk in the bank of Isaac Vernet and [[Peter Thellusson]].<ref name="HDS1" /> Soon after, he managed to learn Dutch and English. One day, he replaced the first clerk in charge of trading on the stock exchange, and through a sequence of trades, he made a quick profit of half a million [[French livre]]s.<ref name="Brewster">{{Cite book |last=Brewster |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKVmdlsm-ecC |title=The Edinburgh Encyclopedia |publisher=William Blackwood |year=1830 |volume=15 |pages=316–320 |chapter=Necker, Jacques Baron de}}</ref> In 1762, Vernet retired and Necker became a partner in the bank with [[Georges-Tobie de Thellusson]] (1728–1776) ([[Isaac de Thellusson]]'s son) who managed the bank in [[London]], while Necker served as his managing partner in Paris. In 1763, before the end of the [[Seven Years' War]], he successfully speculated in British [[debenture]]s or bonds, wheat, and possibly some shares, which he sold at a good profit in the next few years.<ref name="Zeitgenossen1">''Zeitgenossen. Biographieen und Charakteristiken'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=SxItAvsJ0b8C&pg=PA70 p. 72]</ref> <!--Soon, he co-founded the bank of Thellusson, Necker et Compagnie with another Genevese, Thellusson (also known as Pierre Thellusson) .-->

[[File:Duplessis - Suzanne Curchod, Madame Necker.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Suzanne Curchod]], Necker's wife]]
[[File:Carmontelle - Germaine Necker.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Germaine Necker by [[Carmontelle]]]]

Necker had fallen in love with Madame de Verménou, the widow of a French officer. When she went to see [[Théodore Tronchin]], she met [[Suzanne Curchod]]. In 1764, Madame de Verménou brought Curchod to Paris as a companion for Thelusson's children. Suzanne was engaged to British historian [[Edward Gibbon]], but he was forced to break the engagement. Necker transferred his love from the wealthy widow to the ambitious Swiss governess; they married that year. In 1766, they moved to Rue de Cléry and had a daughter, Anne Louise Germaine, who grew to become the famed author and ''salonnière'' [[Germaine de Staël|Madame de Staël]].

Madame Necker encouraged her husband to try to find himself a public position. He, accordingly, became a syndic, or director, of the [[Louis XIV's East India Company|French East India Company]], around which a fierce political debate revolved in the 1760s between the company's directors and shareholders and the royal ministry over its administration and the company's autonomy.<ref name="Lüthy">{{Cite journal |last=Lüthy |first=Herbert |date=1960 |title=Necker et la Compagnie des Indes |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_1960_num_15_5_420657 |journal=Annales |language=French |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=852–881 |doi=10.3406/ahess.1960.420657 |via=Persée}}</ref> After showing his financial ability in its management, Necker defended the company's autonomy in an able memoir against the attacks of Morellet in 1769.<ref name="Morellet">''Réponse au Mémoire de M. l'Abbé Morellet, sur la Compagnie des Indes''</ref> As the company never made any profit during its existence, the monopoly ended.<ref name="Gordon">{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZ0rDgAAQBAJ |title=Citizens without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670–1789 |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400887378 |location=Princeton, N.J. |pages=197}}</ref> The era of free trade had begun.<ref name="Keber">{{Cite book |last=Keber |first=Martha L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mRz5alH0GYC |title=Seas of Gold, Seas of Cotton: Christophe Poulain DuBignon of Jekyll Island |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=2002 |isbn=0820323608 |location=Athens |pages=68}}</ref> Necker bought up the company's ships and stock of unsold goods when it went bankrupt in 1769.

[[File:Corbel010 Vue du château de Madrid, dessiné sur le chemin venant de Neuilly-sur-Seine.jpg|thumb|[[Château de Madrid]], Necker's home in [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]] ]]

From 1768 to 1776, he made loans to the French government in the form of [[Life annuity|life annuities]] and by lottery operations.<ref name="De Lapouge">{{Cite book |last=de Lapouge |first=Claude Vacher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sL0rDwAAQBAJ |title=Necker économiste |date=2016 |publisher=BnF-P |isbn=9782346082223 |pages=48}}</ref>{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=23}} His wife made him give up his share in the bank, which he transferred to his brother [[Louis Necker]] and Jean Girardot in 1772. In 1773, Necker won the prize of the [[Académie Française]] for a defense of [[state corporatism]] framed as an [[eulogy]] in honor of Louis XIV's minister [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]]. Necker's capital amounted to six or eight million livres, and he used [[Château de Madrid]] as a summer house. In 1775, in ''Essai sur la législation et le commerce des grains'', he attacked the [[physiocracy|physiocrats]], like [[Ferdinando Galiani]], and questioned the [[laissez-faire]] policies of [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot|Turgot]], the [[Controller-General of Finances]]. Turgot had made too many enemies; in May 1776, he was dismissed. But his successor, Clugny de Nuis, died in October.{{sfn|Durant|Durant|1967|p=865}}{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=22}} Therefore, on 22 October 1776, on the recommendation of [[Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas|Maurepas]], Necker was appointed "''Directeur du trésor royal''". (As a Protestant, Necker could not serve as Controller.)<ref name="Erenow">[https://erenow.com/modern/rousseau-revolution-a-history-of-civilization-in-france-england-and-germany-from-1756-and-in-the-remainder-of-europe-from-1715-1789/218.html Necker's First Ministry: 1776–81]{{Dead link|date=April 2024}}</ref> <!--His brother took over his post as resident.-->