CALONNE, CHARLES ALEXANDRE DE (1734-1802)

This article appears in Volume V05, Page 60 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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CALONNE, CHARLES ALEXANDRE DE (1734-1802) , French statesman, was born at Douai of a good family. He entered the profession of the law, and became in succession advocate to the general council of Artois, procureur to the parlement of Douai, master of requests, then intendant of Metz (1768) and of Lille (1774). He seems to have been a man of

great

GREAT

business capacity, gay and careless in temperament, and thoroughly unscrupulous in political action. In the terrible crisis of affairs preceding the French Revolution, when minister after minister, tried in vain to replenish the exhausted royal treasury and was dismissed for want of success,

Calonne

CALONNE
CALONNE, CHARLES ALEXANDRE DE (1734-1802)

was summoned to take the general

control

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

of affairs. He assumed office on the 3rd of November 1783. He owed the position to

Vergennes

VERGENNES, CHARLES GRAVIER, COMTE DE (1717-1787)

, who for three years and a half continued to support him; but the king was not well disposed towards him, and, according to the testimony of the Austrian

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

, his reputation with the public was extremely poor. In taking office he found " 600 millions to pay and neither money nor credit." At first he attempted to develop the latter, and to carry on the government by means of loans in such a way as to maintain public confidence in its solvency. In October 1785 he recoined the gold coinage, and he developed the caisse d' escompte. But these

measures

MEASURES

failing, he proposed to the king the suppression of internal customs, duties and the taxation of the property of nobles and clergy. Turgot and Necker had attempted these reforms, and

Calonne

CALONNE
CALONNE, CHARLES ALEXANDRE DE (1734-1802)

attributed their failure to the malevolent criticism of the parlements. Therefore he had an assembly of " notables " called together in January 1787. Before it he exposed the deficit in the treasury, and proposed the

establishment

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement,
late
- LATE
Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

of a subvention territoriale, which should be levied on all property without distinction. This suppression of privileges was badly received by the privileged notables. Calonne, angered, printed his reports and so alienated the court. Louis XVI. dismissed him on the 8th of April 1787 and exiled him to Lorraine. The joy was general in Paris, where Calonne, accused of wishing to augment the imposts, was known as " Monsieur Deficit." In reality his audacious plan of reforms, which Necker took up later, might have saved the monarchy had it been firmly seconded by the king. Calonne soon afterwards passed over to England, and during his residence there kept up a polemical correspondence with Necker on the finances. In 1789, when the states-general were about to assemble, he crossed over to Flanders in the hope of being allowed to offer himself for election, but he was sternly forbidden to enter France. In revenge he joined the emigre party at Coblenz, wrote in their favour, and expended nearly all the fortune brought him by his wife, a wealthy widow. In 18o2, having again taken up his abode in London, he received permission from

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

to return to France. He died on the 3oth of October 1802, about a month after his arrival in his native country.
See Ch. Gomel, Les Causes financieres de la Revolution (Paris, 1893) R. Stourm, Les Finances de l'ancien regime et de la Revolution (a vols., Paris, 1885); Susane, La Tactique financilre de Calonne, with bibliography (Paris, 1902).

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