Coming from a German Protestant family settled in Geneva, he came to Paris in 1747, became a banker and, once he made his fortune, devoted himself to politics. Director General of Finances (1777), he practiced a policy of savings and wanted to reform the tax by creating provincial assemblies, measure badly accepted by the parliaments. Having had the imprudence to publish the state of the finances of the kingdom, he had to resign (1781). Recalled under the pressure of public opinion, he summoned the States General. Dismissed on July 11, 1789, then recalled on the 16th, he remained powerless to control events, he retired to Switzerland in 1790, with his daughter, Madame de Staël.
Considered lacking in charisma and discernment, Claudius – son of Drusus – nonetheless remains a scholar whose reign was fundamental to the Roman Empire. Indeed, he initiated various reforms favoring the strengthening of imperial powers and built the port of Ostia and new aqueducts in order to solve