Editing Jacques Laffitte (section)

===Early life===
Laffitte was born in 1767 at [[Bayonne]] in the [[French Basque Country]], one of four sons and six daughters of Pierre Laffitte, a master carpenter. He apprenticed with his father for a time, but also found clerking positions with a local notary and merchant. In 1788, at 21 years of age and on the eve of the Revolution in France, he arrived in Paris at the offices of the prominent Swiss banker [[Jean-Frédéric Perregaux]] (1744–1808), rue du Sentier, where he was hired as a bookkeeper. It was a starting position that offered Laffitte valuable learning experiences and great potential for advancement. Perregaux was a banker with a wealthy clientele, important foreign connections and friends in high places. 

He was a shrewd, cosmopolitan businessman who prospered from the [[French Revolution of 1789|Revolution]]. He helped to bankroll [[Napoleon]]'s rise to power and became a founder of the [[Bank of France]] in 1800 and president of its directing Council of Regents. Laffitte became Perregaux's right-hand man in the private bank and was promoted to a partnership in 1806. In 1807, because of Perregaux's declining health, he was named managing director and effective head of the bank. The bank's name was changed to "Perregaux, Laffitte and Company". Perregaux's son, Alphonse (1785–1841), and his sister, were sleeping partners (''commanditaires''). Virginie Monnier observes: "For the first time in the history of banks in France, a clerk took over his patron's position directly."<ref>Monnier, ''Jacques Laffitte'', p.72.</ref>  When Perregaux died in 1808, Laffitte also took over his place as one of the fifteen regents of the Bank of France. He became president of the Chamber of Commerce of Paris (1810–1811) and was appointed as a judge of the [[Tribunal de commerce de Paris|Tribunal de commerce de la Seine]] (1813). 

After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, he was named provisional governor of the Bank of France by the incoming Bourbon king [[Louis XVIII]]. Napoleon, when on his way into final exile after [[Battle of Waterloo|Waterloo]] (15 June 1815), reportedly deposited 6 million francs in Laffitte's bank. When Napoleon's estate was being contested later in 1826, Laffitte calculated his bank's obligation at 3,856,121 francs, interest included.<ref>''Ibid.'', p. 160.</ref>