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Jacques Necker
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===Compte rendu au roi (Report to the King)=== [[File:Lombards Library 010.jpg|thumb| ]] [[File:Jean-Michel Moreau, Le festin royal, 1782, NGA 2791.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Michel Moreau]], Le festin royal, 1782, NGA 2791]] By 1781, France was suffering financially, and, as director-general of the royal treasury, he was blamed for the rather high debt accrued from the [[American Revolution]].<ref name="Taylor">Taylor, George. Review of ''Jacques Necker: Reform Statesman of the Ancien Regime,'' by Robert D. Harris. ''Journal of Economic History'' 40, no. 4 (1980): 877–879. {{doi|10.1017/s0022050700100518}}</ref> A series of pamphlets appeared, criticizing Necker.<ref name="Duprat">{{Cite journal |last=Duprat |first=Annie |date=July 2010 |title=Léonard Burnand, Les pamphlets contre Necker. Médias et imaginaire politique au xviiie siècle |url=https://journals.openedition.org/ahrf/11742 |journal=Annales historiques de la Révolution française |language=French |volume=361 |issue=361 |pages=206–208 |doi=10.4000/ahrf.11742 |via=OpenEdition}}</ref> Jacques-Mathieu Augeard attacked him on his foreign origin, his faith, and economic choices.<ref name="Duprat" /> The main reason behind this was the action of Necker "cooking the books" or falsifying the records.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|pp=24–25}}<ref name="Taylor"/> He brightened the picture by excluding military outlays and other 'extraordinary' charges ([[Menus-Plaisirs du Roi]]) and ignoring the national debt.{{sfn|Durant|Durant|1967|p=870}}{{sfn|Schama|1989|pp=92–93}} Both Necker and Calonne were deceived with the number of pensions and gratifications.<ref name="Page">{{Cite book |last=Page |first=Francis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TshDAAAAYAAJ |title=Secret History of the French Revolution, From the Convocation of the Notables in 1787 to the First of November, 1796 |publisher=T.N. Longman |year=1797 |volume=1 |location=London |pages=271–273}}</ref> The king spent much more on his brothers than on public health. After Necker had shown Louis XVI his annual report, the king tried to keep its contents secret. Necker met the challenge aggressively by asking the King to bring him into the royal council. In revenge, Necker made the ''[[Compte rendu|Compte rendu au roi]]'' public; in no time between 200,000 copies were sold.<ref name="Brewster"/> It was rapidly translated into Dutch, German, Danish, Italian and English. In his most influential work, which brought him instant fame, Necker summarized governmental income and expenditures to provide the first record of royal finances ever made public. The Account was meant to be an educational piece for the people, and in it, he expressed his desire to create a well-informed, interested populace.{{sfn|Schama|1989|p=95}} Before, the people had never considered governmental income and expenditure to be their concern, but the ''Compte rendu'' made them more proactive. Maurepas became jealous, and [[Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes|Vergennes]] called him a revolutionist. Necker declared that he would resign unless given the full title and authority of a minister, with a seat on the [[Conseil du Roi]]. Both Maurepas and Vergennes replied that they would resign if this was done.{{sfn|Schama|1989|p=93}} When Necker was dismissed on 19 May 1781, people of all stations flocked to his home at St. Ouen. In August 1781 Madame Necker went as far as [[Utrecht]] to buy the [[libels]] that appeared in the name of Turgot against her husband. She even tried to have the booksellers arrested.<ref name="Utrecht">{{Cite book |last=van Utrecht |first=Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1NaAAAAcAAJ |title=Tweede briev van Jan van Utrecht, over het voorgevallene met twee boekverkopers, tot beter verstand van het so genaamd Echt relaas |publisher=H. Keyzer, F.H. Demter, D. Schuurman |year=1781 |pages=54 |language=Dutch}}</ref><ref name="Duprat" /><ref name="Venturi">{{Cite book |last=Venturi |first=Franco |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vScABAAAQBAJ |title=The End of the Old Regime in Europe, 1776–1789 |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |volume=1 |location=Princeton, N.J. |pages=348|isbn=978-1-4008-6190-3 }}</ref> <!--Did Necker and his brother receive annually 8 million livres as a pension?{{sfn|d'Haussonville|2004|p=204}} (This figure is not very reliable, as it would mean they received as much as the king spent on his brothers? The French Marxist historian [[Albert Soboul]] gives more details.{{cn|date=November 2018}})--> After his dismissal, Necker bought an estate in [[Coppet]]. His brother Louis purchased an estate in [[Cologny]]. Both estates were located near [[Lake Geneva]]. In retirement, Necker, believing in "credible policy", occupied himself with law and economics, producing his famous ''Traité de l'administration des finances de la France'' (1784). Calonne tried to prevent the distribution of the book in Paris.<ref name="Zeitgenossen2">[https://books.google.com/books?id=F1wDAAAAYAAJ&dq=Jacques+Necker+Saint+Ouen+sur+Seine&pg=RA4-PA3 Zeitgenossen: Biograhien und Charakteristiken, Ausgaben 1–4, p. 6]</ref> Never had a work on such a serious subject obtained such general success; 80,000 copies were sold.{{sfn|de Staël|1818}} <!--Because of difference in the ''[[gabelle]]'' salt was smuggled all over the country. Necker reported that a minot of salt, which was 49 kilograms (107.8 pounds) cost only 31 sous in Brittany, but 81 in Poitou, 591 in Anjou, and 611 in Berry.<ref name="Kurlansky">{{cite book |last= Kurlansky |first= Mark |date= 2002 |title= Salt |publisher= Penguin Group |page= 231 |isbn=0-8027-1373-4}}</ref> Each year about 3,000 citizens (men, women, and children) were being imprisoned, sent to the galleys, or put to death for crimes against the gabelle. All the while, religious persons, nobility, and high-ranking officials were often exempt from the gabelle or paid much lower taxes. -->
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