Laffitte, Jacques (zhäk läfēt`), 1767–1844, French banker and politician. He rose from poverty to become one of the wealthiest and most influential men in France. He was director (1809) and later governor (1814–19) of the Bank of France. Elected a deputy in 1816, his strong support for a constitutional monarchy led to his removal as governor of the bank in 1819. Thrown into the opposition, he used his influence, particularly by encouraging journalists such as Adolphe Thiers, to effect the July Revolution July Revolution, revolt in France in July, 1830, against the government of King Charles X . The attempt of the ultraroyalists under Charles to return to the ancien régime provoked the opposition of the middle classes, who wanted more voice in the government.
..... Click the link for more information. of 1830 and put Louis Philippe on the throne. He was made premier by the new king, but his policy failed to satisfy any of the parties, and his support of the Polish and Italian revolutionaries annoyed the king. He resigned in 1831, by then having lost most of his fortune.

Laffitte, Jacques

Jacques Laffitte, drawing by A. Devéria; in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

(credit: Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)

(born Oct. 24, 1767, Bayonne, France—died May 26, 1844, Maisons-sur-Seine) French banker and politician. He became a partner in a Perregaux banking house in 1800 and head of the firm in 1804. As governor of the Bank of France (1814–19), he raised large sums of money for the provisional government in 1814 and for Louis XVIII during the Hundred Days. He saved Paris from a financial crisis in 1818. An early partisan of a constitutional monarchy under Louis-Philippe, he did much to secure Louis-Philippe's accession to the throne, and he briefly served as premier (1830–31) in the July Monarchy.