Necker, Jacques (zhäk nĕkĕr`), 1732–1804, French financier and statesman, b. Geneva, Switzerland. In 1750 he went to Paris and entered banking. He rose rapidly to importance, established a bank of his own, and became a director of the French East India Company. As a writer, Necker opposed the then fashionable physiocrats physiocrats (fĭz`ēəkrăts'), school of French thinkers in the 18th cent. who evolved the first complete system of economics.
..... Click the link for more information. and free traders; his eulogy on Jean Baptiste Colbert was lauded (1773) by the French Academy, and his Essai sur la législation et le commerce des grains (1775) criticized the free trade in grains advocated by A. R. J. Turgot Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques (än rōbĕr` zhäk türgō`)
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1776, Necker, who had previously aided the government with loans, was made director of the treasury; in 1777 he was made director-general of finances. He did not have the title controller general, because he was a foreigner and a Protestant. The salon of his wife, Suzanne Necker, exerted considerable influence. By measures of reform and retrenchment and by borrowing at high interest to finance the colonial cause in the American Revolution, he sought to restore the nation's financial position and gain popular confidence. In 1781 he published his Compte rendu, which stated that the government was in a sound financial position. He then demanded greater reform powers and was opposed by the comte de Maurepas Maurepas, Jean Frédéric Phélippeaux, comte de
..... Click the link for more information. , who resented his increased influence. He resigned and retired to St. Ouen. There he wrote the Traité de l'administration des finances de la France (1784). Returning to Paris in 1787, Necker was soon exiled from the city for having engaged in public controversy over financial policy with Charles Alexandre de Calonne Calonne, Charles Alexandre de (shärl älĕksäN`drə də kälōn`)
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1788, Louis XVI recalled Necker as director-general of finances and minister of state. The populace acclaimed him, and he concurred with the recommendation that the States-General be summoned and reforms introduced. When his enemies at court again secured his dismissal in 1789, the populace, on July 14, stormed the Bastille in the first outbreak of violence of the French Revolution; Necker was once more recalled. His final resignation came in 1790. His last years were spent at "Coppet," his Swiss estate. His daughter, Germaine de Staël Staël, Germaine de (zhĕrmĕn` də stäl)
..... Click the link for more information. , wrote La Vie privée de M. Necker (1804), and his grandson edited a collection of his writings (1820–21).

Bibliography

See also R. D. Harris, Necker: Reform Statesman of the Ancient Regime (1979) and Necker and the Revolution of 1789 (1986)

Necker, Jacques

(born Sept. 30, 1732, Geneva, Switz.—died April 9, 1804, Coppet) Swiss-born French financier and director-general of finance under Louis XVI. He became a banker in Paris, and, after becoming wealthy from speculating during the Seven Years' War, he was appointed minister of Geneva in Paris (1768). He retired from banking in 1772 and became France's director-general of finance in 1777. Despite his cautious reforms, he was forced to resign in 1781 over opposition to his scheme to help finance the American Revolution. He was recalled in 1788 to rescue the almost bankrupt France, and he proposed financial and political reforms that included a limited constitutional monarchy. Opposition from the royal court led to Necker's dismissal on July 11, 1789, an event that provoked the storming of the Bastille. After serving again briefly (1789–90), he retired to Geneva. Germaine de Staël was his daughter.