Gaudin

Martin-Michel-Charles, Duke of Gaète (Saint-Denis, January 16, 1756 - Paris, November 5, 1841).

Entering the administration of finances in 1773, Gaudin became in 1791 one of the six national treasury commissioners responsible for ensuring the transition from the old tax system to the new one.
Competent and discreet, Gaudin played an important role in revolutionary finances, intervened to avoid the guillotine for the 48 receivers general of the Ancien Régime who were to be referred to the Revolutionary Tribunal at the same time as the farmers general.
Tired, Gaudin resigned in June 1795 and refused the finance portfolio offered to him by the Directory. He only accepted, in April 1798, the position of intendant general of the Post Office.

However, Gaudin accepts, on the evening of 19-Brumaire, to become Bonaparte's Minister of Finance. It will remain so until the end of the Empire and will become so again during the Hundred Days. He undertakes a remarkable work of restoration of finances, creates a direction of the direct Contributions which ensures 400 million per annum with the State, restores gradually several indirect receipts and unites them in control, by drawing even more than direct taxes. br class='autobr' /> Gaudin was rewarded for his efficiency:Count of the Empire in 1808, Duke of Gaeta in 1809, income of 125,000 francs in Westphalia and Hanover, peer during the Hundred Days. Gaudin's loyalty is worth highlighting:he refused all employment during the First and Second Restorations and even under the July Monarchy, contenting himself with being Governor of the Banque de France from 1820 to 1834.
Honest, hard-working, devoted but without genius, Gaudin suited the Emperor well, who knew how to count on his obedience. Napoleon will say of him in Saint Helena:"All that it is possible to do in a few days to destroy the abuses of a vicious regime and restore honor to the principles of credit and moderation, Minister Gaudin did. .
He was an administrator of probity and order, who knew how to please his subordinates, walking slowly but surely. Everything he did and proposed in those first moments he maintained and perfected during fifteen years of wise administration. He never went back on any measure, because his knowledge was positive and the fruit of long experience"