Ancient history

Towards the Revolution:Turgot and Necker facing the crisis of the kingdom

Turgot the liberal

From 1761 to her coming to power in 1774, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot worked, as intendant of Limousin, to modernize one of the most deprived regions of the kingdom. In August 1774, the appointment of this encyclopaedist, precursor of liberalism, to the post of Comptroller General of Finances was a victory for enlightened France.

Turgot's policy is based first and foremost on a vast program to reduce public spending, which conditions the success of his vast reform plan:liberalization of the grain trade, abolition of the royal corvée, abolition of guilds and masterships. This liberal-inspired program aroused many resistances, the most serious being the "flour war", a revolt following the liberalization of the wheat trade.

Released by Louis XVI on May 12, 1776, Turgot did not have time to launch his “municipalities” project, which was to redesign the administrative and political map of France. The new reign held out hope for a revolution from above. Failing to have realized it, the sovereign will have to face another coming from below.

Opinion-conscious necker

Considered by some as a great reformer and an outstanding manager of finance, and by others as a charlatan, even a "fourrier of the Revolution", Jacques Necker has the gift of splitting.

The first stint in business (1776-1781) of the Geneva banker was marked by a reform which won the approval of the French:the creation of four provincial assemblies, the trial balloon of an ambitious decentralization project. His financing of the American war by loans, painless for the taxpayer, made him one of the most popular ministers in the history of the monarchy.

Necker is very attentive to what he calls “public opinion”. The salon run by his wife opens the doors to enlightened circles. Necker was also inspired by the Duc de Choiseul, who in 1761 addressed the French directly in a book justifying his policy. Twenty years later, if it strengthens popular support for Necker, the publication of the Report also sounds his loss. On May 19, 1781, pressed by Vergennes who saw these methods as dangerous for the monarchy, Louis XVI released his minister.