Synopses & Reviews
The Comte de Vergennes is best known as one of the great foreign ministers of modern French history, but for much of the 1780s he was also first minister in all but name. This is the first book to deal in depth with the critical part he played in French domestic policies on the eve of the Revolution. His financial reforms, fully examined here, were the last attempt to restructure the monarchy in accordance with its traditional principles. The failure of this undertaking accelerated the final collapse of the royal government. This study is based on important new archival material, as well as on established sources which are often reinterpreted here.
Synopsis
A study of Vergennesâdomestic policy role on the eve of the French Revolution.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-249) and index.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Recalled to life; king, queen, and first minister: the Guines affair; 2. The question of reform: Turgot, Necker, and Vergennes; 3. Vergennes as first minister: the comitédes finances; 4. The fall of the comitédes finances: the comitéand credit policy; the crisis of the caisse dâescompte; the reform of the general farm; conclusion; 5. The politics of judicial reform; 6. The politics of retrenchment; 7. The ministry, its divisions, and the parlement of Paris, 1785 1786; the diamond necklace affair; 8. The Dutch imbroglio; 9. Death and posterity; Bibliography.