Surintendant des Finances

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The Surintendant des Finances was the chief official of the French financial administration in the Ancien Régime from 1561 to 1661; its task was to direct state expenditure. In his functions he is comparable to the later finance minister . The office was dissolved in 1661 after the fall of Nicolas Fouquet and replaced by the new position of Contrôleur général des finances (general controller of finances).

prehistory

From the time of King Charles VII (reigned 1422–1461) until the creation of the position of Surintendent, France's royal finances were administered by two finance councils that worked together as colleagues:

  1. the four Généraux des finances were responsible for collecting taxes (e.g. the waist ),
  2. the four Trésoriers de France for the income from the royal property, the Domaine royal .

Together they were often referred to as messieurs des finances . The four members of each council divided the country geographically among themselves, into Recettes générales or Généralités (initially Languedoïl, Languedoc, Normandy, and Outre-Seine and Yonne), with the official responsible for Languedoil typically having a somewhat prominent rank. The double council was supported in its work by four contrôleurs généraux .

Until 1523/24 the Conseil du Roi had little influence on the day-to-day business of the tax officials. In 1523 King Francis I set up the Trésor de l'Épargne , which was under his direct instruction, another royal treasury, in order to gain direct control over the royal finances in the current war times and at the same time the double council, which was accused of lack of oversight in these matters, to get around (similar facilities had already existed in earlier times). However, the results of this reform have been disappointing. In the following 40 years numerous attempts were made to improve:

  • Increase in the number of généralités (e.g. 1542, 1558)
  • Appointment of two "contrôleurs généraux" who were subordinate to the royal treasurer
  • Changes to the royal finance courts (the Cour des comptes and the Cour des Aides )
  • Appointed a number of provincial finance officers and councils
  • Appointment of financial directors (Intendant des finances) (1552)

One result of the reform, however, was an increase in the influence of the Conseil du Roi on state finances, which also gave a number of high nobles (e.g. Anne de Montmorency , Charles de Lorraine ) greater weight in financial matters.

The most important officials during this period were:

  • 1518–1524: Jacques de Beaune , Baron de Semblançay
  • 1552: André Guillart
  • 1556: Jean de Saint Marcel d'Avançon

Surintendant des finances

The office of "Surintendant des finances" was in 1561 by King Charles IX. created. It grew out of the office of artistic director, which had been established by Henry II in 1552 to oversee the royal finances during the monarch's trip to Germany. Three directors were appointed, one of whom was a member of the Conseil d'État - and from this special position the office of Surintendent developed, which was also filled with two people right from the start: Artus de Cossé-Brissac and Louis the Elder 'Ongnyes, comte de Chaulnes . In 1567 Cossé was appointed Marshal of France , whereupon he (and probably the Comte de Chaulnes) resigned in favor of René de Birague . This was then the first sole surintendant.

After 1570 the office was replaced by the Conseil royal des finances , the royal finance council, but King Henry III. 1574 restored the old state. King Henry IV set up a finance council again, after which there was only a Surintendent with temporary interruptions.

On September 5, 1661, the surintendant Nicolas Fouquet was arrested for embezzlement , and on September 12 the office was again replaced by a finance council headed by an intendant des finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert , who later became contrôleur général des finances .

For the list of surintendants des finances see: List of Finance Ministers of France for the years 1561–1661

literature

  • Daniel Dessert: Argent, pouvoir et société au grand siècle , Fayard, 1984
  • Bernard Barbiche: Les Institutions de la monarchie française à l'époque moderne , PUF, coll. "Premier Cycle", 1999
  • Arlette Jouanna, Philippe Hamon, Dominique Biloghi, Guy Le Thiec: "Finances", La France de la Renaissance: Histoire et Dictionnaire, Paris: Laffont, 2001.