Editing Jacques Necker (section)

==The one non-noble minister==
[[File:France-Britain-Freedom-Slavery-Gillray.jpeg|300px|thumb|right|In this 1789 [[engraving]], [[James Gillray]] caricatures the triumph of Necker (seated, on left) in 1789, comparing its effects on freedom unfavorably to those of [[William Pitt the Younger]] in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]]. France has the caption "[[Free will|Freedom]]," while Britain has the caption "[[Slavery]]."]]

By the time of his second term in office, Necker desired a more limited monarchy and favored increased power for the [[Estates General (France)|Estates General]].<ref name="Hardman2">{{Cite book |last=Hardman |first=John |title=Overture to Revolution: The 1787 Assembly of Notables and the Crisis of France's Old Regime |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages=227 |chapter=Chapter 7: The Easter Crisis |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199585779.003.0008 |via=Oxford Academic}}</ref> According to [[Peter Kropotkin]], Necker "helped to shake down the system which was already tottering to its fall, but he was powerless to prevent the fall from becoming a revolution: probably he did not even perceive that it was impending."<ref name="Kropotkin4">{{cite book | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 | chapter=Chapter 6 | author=Peter Kropotkin | year=1909 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=218}}</ref>

Necker succeeded in doubling the representation of the [[Estates General (France)|Third Estate]] to satisfy the nation's people. The Third Estate had as many deputies as the other two orders together. His address at the Estates-General on 5 May 1789 about the fundamental problems as financial health, constitutional monarchy, and institutional and political reforms lasted three hours. Necker suffered from a cold and, after fifteen minutes, he asked the secretary of the Agricultural Society to read the remainder.<ref name="Lenotre">{{Cite book |last=Lenotre |first=G. |url=https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Robespierre_et_la_«_Mère_de_Dieu_»/1#cite_note-81 |title=Robespierre et la « Mère de Dieu » |publisher=Perrin et Cie |year=1926 |pages=36 |access-date=2024-04-22}}</ref> He invited the representatives to leave aside their factional interests and take into consideration the general, long-term interests of the nation. Personal rivalries and radical claims had to give way to a pragmatic spirit of moderation and conciliation.{{sfn|Craiutu|2012|pp=119–121}} He concluded: {{blockquote|"Finally, gentlemen, you will not be envious of what only time can achieve, and you will leave something for it to do. For if you attempt to reform everything that seems imperfect, your work will lead to poor results."{{sfn|Harris|1986|pp=433–434}}}} According to [[Simon Schama]], he "appeared to consider the Estates-General to be a facility designed to help the administration rather than to reform government".{{sfn|Schama|1989|pp=345–346}} Two weeks later, Necker seems to have sought to persuade the king to adopt a constitution similar to that of Great Britain and advised him in the strongest possible terms to make the necessary concessions before it was too late.{{sfn|Craiutu|2012|p=123}} According to [[François Mignet]], "he hoped to reduce the number of orders, and bring about the adoption of the English form of government, by uniting the clergy and nobility in one chamber, and the third estate in another."<ref name="Mignet">[http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9602/pg9602-images.html History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 by M. Mignet]</ref> Necker warned the king that unless the privileged orders yielded, the States-General would collapse, taxes would not be paid, and the government would be bankrupt.{{sfn|Durant|Durant|1967|p=958}}

On 17 June 1789, the first act of the new [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] declared all existing taxes illegal. Necker had legitimate reasons to be concerned about the implications of this unprecedented decision.{{sfn|Craiutu|2012|p=124}} On 23 June, the king proposed to the royal council the dissolution of the Assembly. On 11 July, the king advised Necker to leave the country immediately. According to [[Jean Luzac]], Necker and his wife went for a walk in a park. They then got into their carriage to drive to their estate in Saint-Ouen at seven in the evening.<ref name="Gazette1">Gazette de Leyde – Livraison n° 58 du 21 juillet 1789</ref> When the news became known the next day, it enraged [[Camille Desmoulins]]. Wax heads of Necker and the Duc d'Orléans were taken through the streets to the Tuileries. The Royal Guard allegedly chose to open fire rather than salute the likenesses.<ref name="Spies-Gans">{{Cite journal |last=Spies-Gans |first=Paris Amanda |date=2017 |title='The Fullest Imitation of Life': Reconsidering Marie Tussaud, Artist-Historian of the French Revolution |url=https://www.journal18.org/issue3/the-fullest-imitation-of-life-reconsidering-marie-tussaud-artist-historian-of-the-french-revolution/ |journal=Journal18 |issue=3|doi=10.30610/3.2017.8 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The threat of a counter-revolution caused citizens to take up arms and [[storming of the Bastille|storm the Bastille]] on 14 July.<ref name="Godechot">{{Cite book |last=Godechot |first=Jacques |url=https://archive.org/details/takingofbastille0000gode |title=The Taking of the Bastille: July 14th, 1789 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1970 |translator-last=Stewart |translator-first=Jean |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>{{pn|date=April 2024}} The king and the Assembly recalled the immensely popular Necker to a third ministry in a letter dated 16 July.<ref name="Necker1">{{Cite book |last=Necker |first=Jacques |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CVwPAAAAQAAJ |title=De la Révolution française |publisher=Maret |year=1797 |volume=2 |location=Paris |pages=13 |language=French}}</ref> Necker replied from Basle on the 23rd.<ref name="Brief">{{Cite book |last=de Conches |first=Félix Feuillet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1e4_5YV6VUC |title=Briefe und Urkunden von Ludwig XVI., Marie Antoinette und Madame Elisabeth: nach den Original-Handschriften |publisher=Rud. M. Rohrer |year=1864 |volume=1 |location=Brünn |pages=410 |language=German}}</ref> He wrote to his brother that he was going back to the abyss. His successor, the 74-year-old [[Joseph Foullon de Doué]], was hanged from a lamppost on the 22nd. His entry into Versailles on the 29th was a festival day.<ref name="Gazette2">Gazette de Leyde – Livraison n° 63 du 7 août 1789</ref> Necker demanded a pardon for [[Pierre Victor, baron de Besenval de Brünstatt|Baron de Besenval]], who was imprisoned after given command of the troops concentrated in and around Paris early July.<ref name="Blanc">{{Cite book |last=Blanc |first=Louis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bKo7AAAAMAAJ |title=History of the French Revolution of 1789 |publisher=Lea & Blanchard |year=1848 |volume=1 |location=Philadelphia |pages=568}}</ref>

On 4 August 1789, the day when [[Abolition of feudalism in France|feudalism was abolished]] by the National Assembly, Necker is quoted as saying, "The collectors of the taille are at their last shift."<ref name="Kropotkin5">{{cite book | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 | chapter=Chapter 15 | author=Peter Kropotkin | year=1909 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=227}}</ref>

===Assignats===
[[File:FRA-A39-Domaines Nationaux-100 livres (1790).jpg|300px|thumb|right|Early French banknote issue by Domaines Nationaux – Assignat for 100 livres, 1790 Issue]]

Necker proved to be powerless as tax revenue dropped quickly.<ref name="Mignet" /> Credit was wrecked, according to Talleyrand; for Mirabeau "the deficit was the treasure of the nation" as it had made many changes possible. By September, the treasury was empty.{{sfn|Crouzet|de Larosière|1993|pp=97–98}} According to Marat, the whole famine was the work of one man, accusing Necker of buying up all the corn on every side, in order that Paris had none.{{sfn|Michelet|1864|p=248}} Talleyrand proposed that "national goods" be given back to the nation.{{sfn|Crouzet|de Larosière|1993|p=101}} In November 1789, ecclesiastical possessions were confiscated by the state. Necker proposed to borrow from the [[Caisse d'Escompte#Central banking before the Bank of France|Caisse d'Escompte]], but his intention to change the private bank into a [[central bank|national bank]] similar to the Bank of England failed.{{sfn|Crouzet|de Larosière|1993|pp=104–105}}{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=64}} A general bankruptcy seemed certain.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=59}}<ref name="Spang">{{Cite book |last=Spang |first=Rebecca L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fY_uBQAAQBAJ |title=Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution |date=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674745421 |location=Cambridge, Mass.}}</ref>{{pn|date=April 2024}} Mirabeau proposed to Lafayette to overthrow Necker.{{sfn|Michelet|1864|p=288}} On 21 December 1789, a first decree was voted through, ordering the issue (in April 1790) of 400 million ''[[assignats]]'', certificates of indebtedness of 1,000 livres each, with an interest rate of 5%, secured and repayable based on the auctioning of the "[[Biens nationaux]]".<ref name="Numiscorner">[https://www.numiscorner.com/blogs/news/the-french-revolution-the-assignats-and-the-counterfeiters The French Revolution, the Assignats, and the Counterfeiters]</ref> Once the assignats were paid, they had to be destroyed or burnt. <!--Feudal rights were confiscated in March.-->

In January 1790, Necker obtained an order of arrest against [[Jean-Paul Marat]], for having "had openly espoused the cause of the people, the poorest classes," according to Peter Kropotkin. Marat was forced to flee to London.<ref name="Kropotkin6">{{cite book | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 | chapter=Chapter 28 | first=Peter | last=Kropotkin | year=1909 | translator-first=N. F. | translator-last=Dryhurst | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=240}}</ref><ref name="Walter">{{cite book|first=Gérard |last=Walter|title=Marat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxmH8MCZNnMC&pg=PT56|year= 2012|publisher=Albin Michel|isbn=978-2-226-26096-3|pages=56–59}}</ref> On 10 March 1790, on the proposition of [[Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve|Pétion]], the administration of the church property was transferred to the municipalities.{{sfn|Crouzet|de Larosière|1993|p=110}} At the same time, [[Étienne Clavière]] lobbied for large issues of assignats representing national wealth and operating as legal tender.<ref name="Whatmore">{{Cite journal |last=Whatmore |first=Richard |title=Commerce, Constitutions, and the Manners of a Nation: Etienne Clavière's Revolutionary Political Economy, 1788–1793 |journal=History of European Ideas |date=1996 |volume=22 |issue=5–6 |pages=351–368 |doi=10.1016/S0191-6599(96)00013-7 }}</ref>  For daily, life smaller denominations were needed and extended to the whole of France.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=95}} On 17 April 1790, the new notes of 200 and 300 livres were declared [[legal tender]] but their interest was reduced to 3%.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=xii}} The assignats would compensate for the scarcity of coin and would revive industry and trade.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|pp=80, 95}}

In May 1790, the feudal and ecclesiastical properties were sold against assignats. Constitutional monarchists such as [[Jean-Sifrein Maury|Maury]], [[Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès|Cazalès]], [[Nicolas Bergasse|Bergasse]] and [[Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil|d'Eprémesnil]] opposed it. The deputies in the Convention prepared a [[surety]] for future issues of paper money (on 19 June and 29 July).{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=76}} Half of the taxes over the preceding year were still not received. People who earned more than 400 livres were invited to go to their municipality and fulfill their duty. As it was not the final cure, Necker asked his friends, the Geneva "banquiers", to pay the [[arrears]] the Assembly turned it down.{{sfn|Crouzet|de Larosière|1993|p=99}} The political scene came to be dominated by "clamorous spectators, passionate judges, and ungovernable agitators".{{sfn|Craiutu|2012|p=130}} Necker was continuously attacked by [[Jean-Paul Marat]] in his pamphlets and by [[Jacques-René Hébert]] in his newspaper. [[Count Mirabeau]], who played a decisive role in the Assembly, accused him of complete financial dictatorship.{{sfn|Schama|1989|pp=499, 536}} For Mirabeau, to express doubts in the assignats was to express doubts in the revolution.<ref name="Levasseur">{{Cite journal |last=Levasseur |first=J. |date=1894 |title=The Assignats: A Study in the Finances of the French Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1819467 |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=183 |jstor=1819467 }}</ref>

At the end of August, the government was again in distress; four months after the first issue the money was spent. [[François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac|Montesquiou-Fézensac]], the teacher of Mirabeau, presented a report in the Assembly. Assignats should be used not only for payment of church property.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=77}}

[[François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac|Montesquiou]] had massively exaggerated the amount of the redeemable debt, probably to convince the Assembly.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|p=78}} On 27 August 1790, the Assembly decided another issue of 1.9 billion assignats which would become [[legal tender]] before the end of the year. Necker endeavored to dissuade the Assembly from the proposed issue; suggesting that other means could be found for accomplishing the result, and he predicted terrible evils. Necker was not backed by Comte de Mirabeau, his strongest opponent who called for "national money" and won that day.<ref name="White">{{Cite news |last=White |first=A.D. |date=1878-08-02 |title=The Assignat |url=https://aadl.org/node/307527 |work=Michigan Argus}}</ref> A few crowds were sent to shout and threaten him.{{sfn|Michelet|1864|p=487}} When all resources were exhausted, the Assembly created paper money, according to Necker.{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|pp=84–85}} He handed in his resignation on 3 September.{{sfn|de Staël|1818|pp=256–258}} The massive and dangerous issue of 1.9 billion he succeeded to get down to 800 million, but the attacks influenced his resignation.{{sfn|Crouzet|de Larosière|1993|p=115}}<ref name="Necker3">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-41YAAAAcAAJ&q=assignats+&pg=PA17 Histoire de la révolution française: depuis l'Assemblée des notables ... by Jacques Necker, p. 35]</ref> Necker did not step down on the decision to make the assignat legal tender. Instead,the choice to issue the paper money along with political opposition proved to be his main motivators.<ref name="Martin">{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Henri |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6536631q/f1n714.pdf?download=1 |title=Histoire de Révolution française de 1789 a 1799 |publisher=Jouvet et Cie |location=Paris |pages=214 |language=French |format=PDF |via=BNF}}</ref>

The Assembly decreed that it would itself direct the public Treasury.{{sfn|Michelet|1864|p=487}} Necker foretold that the paper money, with which the dividends were about to be paid, would soon be of no value. [[Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours|Du Pont de Nemours]] feared the emission of assignats would double the price of bread.<ref name="Dillaye">{{Cite book |last=Dillaye |first=Stephen Devalson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FFDAAAAYAAJ |title=The Money and the Finances of the French Revolution of 1789: Assignats and Mandats : a True History : Including an Examination of Dr. Andrew D. White's "Paper Money Inflation in France" |publisher=Henry Carey Baird & Co. |year=1877 |location=Philadelphia |pages=18}}</ref>{{sfn|Aftalion|1990|pp=84–81}} Since no one had truly the right to make assignats, everyone would soon begin to do so.<ref name="Spang" />{{pn|date=April 2024}} [[François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac|Montesquiou-Fézensac]], charged with the issue of assignats, feared [[stockjobbing]] and greed.<ref name="Montesquiou">{{Cite book |last=de Montesquiou-Fézensac |first=François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine |author-link=François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fe-zSeIAwA4C |title=Opinion de M. de Montesquiou sur les assignats-monnoie |publisher=l'Assemblée Nationale |year=1790 |pages=3 |language=French}}</ref> A declaration (14 Oct) suspending all interest payments turned the assignats into [[fiat money]].<ref name="HET">{{Cite web |last=Fonseca |first=Gonçalo L. |title=Jacques Necker, 1732–1804 |url=https://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/necker.htm |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=The History of Economic Thought}}</ref>

Necker's efforts to keep the financial situation afloat were ineffective. His popularity vanished and he resigned with a damaged reputation.{{sfn|Furet|Ozouf|1989|p=288}}<ref name="Doyle">{{Cite book |last=Doyle |first=William |title=The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=9780192853967}}</ref>{{pn|date=April 2024}} Necker left leaving two million livres in the public treasury; he took 1/5 of the amount with him.<ref name="Necker4">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-41YAAAAcAAJ&q=assignats+&pg=PA17 Histoire de la révolution française: depuis l'Assemblée des notables ... by Jacques Necker, p. 31]</ref>