Charles Alexandre de Calonne

Charles Alexandre, vicomte de Calonne was born in 1734 in Douai into a reasonably wealthy family.  He had a successful career as a lawyer and his career was in the ascendancy before he became Controller-General of Finances in 1783.

His plans to deal with the increasingly severe economic situation that France found itself in were radical and far reaching.  He sought to remove the privileged position the nobles had by creating a new land value tax.  He also believed that there should be a sweeping away of the numerous custom barriers assembled across France leading to the free trade in grain.  He sought to limit the runaway spending of the government and if possible sell off some of the churches large portfolio of land.

Calonne faced great opposition to his proposals from the nobility.  He decided that he would be able pass his policies in a different form.  He called an Assembly of Notables in February 1787.  The nobles did not take Calonne’s suggestions well and opposed any change. They held him responsible for the massive overspending of the French government. Louis XVI was forced to dismiss him in April 1787.

He would try to return to France in the early stages of the Revolution but was forbidden.  He was allowed by Bonaparte to return to France only to die a month later.

Comte de Segur on finance minister Calonne.  Memoirs of Louis Philippe Comte de Segur, The Folio Society, London (1960) p169-170

The administration of Calonne may be considered as the cause of the Revolution, which had perhaps become inevitable, but which might, at least, have been postponed.  The nomination of an ambitious and volatile minister, and the levity with which he was dismissed, had certainly accelerated the explosion which old resentments, worn out institutions, new manners, and a philosophy which combated every prejudice by arming all passions against them, had been long preparing.

Monsieur de Calonne combined in himself, all that could please the court, displease the people cherish the illusion of authority, and revive the alarm of the parlements.  His address and manners were more those of a man of the world than a magistrate.  He was admired for a refined mind, compliant character, lively imagination, and great facility of speech.  Perceiving everything with rapidity, but profound in nothing, no obstacle gave him uneasiness, nor checked his presumptuous confidence.

Calculating, with reason no doubt but with little prudence and judgement, the immensity of our resources, he rather abused than profited by them.  The embarrassments in which we were then involved through the effects of an expensive war, the prodigalities of the court, the scarcity of money, and the abuse of credit, did not give him the smallest anxiety.  Far from applying the only wise remedy- rigid economy- to so many real evils, he fancied he could increase the expenditure without danger, renew the power of the court by augmenting its brilliance, dazzle the public by displays, restore confidence by illusions, and cause without opposition the adoption of loans by bankers, of new taxes by the parlements, and of pecuniary sacrifices by the nobility and clergy.  The severity of Monsieur Necker had caused sadness and alarm; the mediocrity of his successors excited discouragement, while the boldness and gaiety of Monsieur de Calonne lulled the nation.  The peril ceased to appear great from the moment people saw that it was a mere pastime to the minister who was employed to extricate us from our difficulties.

Barère on the failures of Louis XVI ministers.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 1, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p196

At this critical point when the State was passing out of the hands of a financial charlatan, like M. Necker, into those of a squanderer like M. de Calonne.

These ministers of a day had by turns destroyed the monarchy and led the way to the Revolution by the increase of taxation, the persecution of the parliaments, the confusion of the exchequer, and the depletion of the national treasury. Twice had the Notables been summoned merely to dissolve before coming to any agreement; they had refused to make the property of the nobility and clergy pay taxes. A deficit of fifty-five millions was the only point that was settled, and by seeing the terrible confusion of the finances of every government of this period, it is easy to understand how a deficit of fifty-five millions could mount up, since several hundred millions have since been spent on unjust wars and useless conquests.

Joseph Barnave explains Calonne’s failings. From Power, Property and History Joseph Barnave’s Introduction to the French Revolution and Other Writings, Harper Torchbooks, London (1971) p127

There appeared that man whose name will be linked to the memory of the French Revolution as its evil genius.  Far from there being a question of economy under his administration, he was prodigal by character, complaisance, and system.  Just as a ruined man tries to dazzle by his ostentation, hoping for some unexpected resource in the kind of esteem he attracts, so his minister seemed to want to win over powerful men by his lavishness and to intoxicate the nation by a factitious prosperity.  (Thus he hoped) to prepare everything and to be master of opinion at the moment when he would reveal the bold measures by which he imagined he would (restore finances).

He finally brought on that famous time when the deficit was revealed and when statesmen could foresee almost everything that has happened since.

Some of the things he proposed might have succeeded, had they been presented by a respected minister after extensive reforms in expenditure, and when needs were not as large nor as pressing.  But when a discredited government, scandalous in its lavishness, suddenly reveals its extreme distress, enjoying neither respect nor fear, all its proposals seem to be snares and its demands arose only indignation and contempt.

The Marquis de Bouille on Louis XVI’s minister Calonne and the calling of the Assembly of Notables.  Taken from Memoirs Relating to the French Revolution by the Marquis de Bouille, Cadell and Davies, London (1797) p48

The plan of M. de Calonne was connected with that of the provincial administrations, which were meant to be substituted to the arbitrary establishment of the intendants. It was to be supported by an assembly of the notables of the kingdom, formed with a view to counterbalance the parliaments. These measures were the more acceptable to the king, as they tended to fulfil the dearest wish of his heart, that of relieving the most numerous class of his subjects.

The Notables of the kingdom were summoned for the 29th of January 1787. Of this assembly I was a member. It had not been held since the year 1626, under Louis the Thirteenth. At that time the prime minister was Cardinal Richelieu, and he directed all its movements, making them subservient to his own views and projects; this was not the case in the present instance.

The opening of the assembly of the Notables had been put off till the 22nd of February, during which interval M. de Vergennes died, and M. de Calonne lost his support. Another inconvenience attending this delay was, that it gave time to the Notables and to the public to recover from their first surprise it likewise afforded intriguers an opportunity of putting in practice those schemes which they had formed to frustrate the plan of the government.