Controller-General of Finances
Encyclopedia
The Controller-General of Finances was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 from 1661 to 1791. The position replaced the former position of Superintendent of Finances
Superintendent of Finances
The Superintendent of Finances was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1561 to 1661. The position was abolished in 1661 with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet, and a new position was created, the Controller-General of Finances....

 (Surintendant des finances), which was abolished with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet
Nicolas Fouquet
Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV...

.

History

The term "contrôleur général" in reference to a position of royal accounting and financial oversight had existed in various forms prior to 1547, but the direct predecessor to the 17th century "Controller-General" was created in 1547, with two position-holders whose job was to verify the accounts of the Royal Treasurer (trésor de l'Épargne), who was at that time the head of the royal financial system. Their name came from the account book, or contre-rôle, in which they kept their accounts. The office was thus, in the beginning, not a high administrative or governmental position, but merely an accounting position. In the period following 1547, the financial administration in France continued to change, resulting in the creation of intendant
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...

s of finances (created in 1552), of which one was to become the Superintendent of Finances
Superintendent of Finances
The Superintendent of Finances was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1561 to 1661. The position was abolished in 1661 with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet, and a new position was created, the Controller-General of Finances....

 (1561). Also

In 1661, the last Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet
Nicolas Fouquet
Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV...

, was arrested and Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

 became head of the royal financial administration, first with the title of "intendant", then, from 1665, with the title of "contrôleur général des finances". Under Colbert's administration, the Controller-General's responsibilities were greatly redefined. Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 suppressed the two positions of Controllers-general, replacing these with a single office, but this position was no longer transmissible; the king could revoke the commission at his pleasure. In addition, the position was far more behoven to the Royal Finance Counsel (Conseil royal des finances). In these ways, the position of Controller-General became a true governmental post.

The function of Controller-General would continue until 1791, with an interruption during the Polysynody
Polysynody
Polysynody was the system of government in use in France between 1715 and 1718 and in which each minister was replaced by a council....

 (1715-1718).

Occasionally, the de facto Minister of Finance served instead as "President of the Royal Council of Finance", who was superior to a mere Controller-General, or, in the case of Jacques Necker
Jacques Necker
Jacques Necker was a French statesman of Swiss birth and finance minister of Louis XVI, a post he held in the lead-up to the French Revolution in 1789.-Early life:...

, who, as a Protestant, could not serve as Controller-General, as "Director-General of Finances" ("directeur général du Trésor royal", and "directeur général des finances", 1776 - 1781, 1788 - 1790), a less prominent position.

The position was renamed Minister of Finances
Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry (France)
The Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment , or Minister of Finance for short, is one of the most prominent positions in the cabinet of France after the Prime Minister....

 in 1791 which, along with all other ministerial positions, was abolished in 1794, but restored with the advent of the Directory
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...

 in 1795.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Controller-General were the most extensive of all the administrative positions of the Ancien Régime. According to the official description of 1665, the Controller-General had the power "to report in our Counsel of all affairs which are of concern to our service and of any others" ("faire rapport en notre Conseil de toutes les affaires qui concerneront notre service et de toutes autres indifféremment.")

The Controller-General oversaw finances, agriculture, industry, commerce, bridges and roads ("ponts et chaussées") and a part of lesser administration.

Colbert, first of the Controllers-General, was also head of a number of other administrative positions: Secretary of State of the Navy
Secretary of State of the Navy (France)
The Secretary of State of the Navy was one of the four or five specialized secretaries of state in France during the Ancien Régime. This Secretary of State was responsible for the French navy and for French colonies...

 (1669-1683), Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi
Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi
The Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi was the secretary of state in France during the "Ancien Régime" and Bourbon Restoration in charge of the Département de la Maison du Roi...

 and Superintendent of the Bâtiments du Roi
Bâtiments du Roi
The Bâtiments du Roi was a division of Department of the household of the Kings of France in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris.-History:...

 (1664-1683).

The position was very well paid: in addition to 200 000 livre tournois
Livre tournois
The livre tournois |pound]]) was:#one of numerous currencies used in France in the Middle Ages; and#a unit of account used in France in the Middle Ages and the early modern period.-Circulating currency:...

 by year, the Controller-General could also gain 20 000 livres as Minister of State
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...

, and could also receive bribes during renewal of contracts to the Ferme Générale
Ferme générale
The Ferme générale was, in ancien régime France, essentially an outsourced customs and excise operation which collected duties on behalf of the king, under six-year contracts...

.

The Controller-General participated in a number of the King's Councils
Conseil du Roi
The Conseil du Roi or King's Council is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the king of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice...

. He was always member of the king's Privy or Council of State (although he rarely attended), the "Conseil des dépêches", the Royal Finance Counsel ("Conseil royal des finances") and the Royal Commerce Counsel ("Conseil royal de commerce"). He was almost always a Minister of State (one of two), which allowed him to attend the "High Counsel" ("Conseil d'en haut"). Other than the administration of state finances -- oversight of the "Contrôle Général" and of the Treasory, collection of taxes like the taille
Taille
The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien Régime France. The tax was imposed on each household and based on how much land it held.-History:Originally only an "exceptional" tax The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien...

, printing money -- he directed the state economy and a large portion of the provincial administration. It was largely on his recommendations that most intendant
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...

s in the provinces were named.

The Controller-General was generally chosen from among the intendants of finances or from the maîtres des requêtes
Maître des requêtes
Masters of Requests are high-level judicial officers of administrative law in France and other European countries that have existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages.-Old Regime France:...

. Of all ministerial positions, the Controller-General was the least stable, especially during the reigns of Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

 and Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....

, to such a point that the Controller-General's official residence was called the "Hotel of Moving-out" ("hôtel des déménagements").

Organization

Unlike other ministries of the period, the Contrôle Général of Finances was organized in a collegiate manner. It was divided into several departments of which the Controller-General ran the most important (like the Royal Treasury), while the others were each directed by an Intendant of Finance, supervised from afar by the Controller-General. There were six Intendants of Finance at the end of the ancien régime; they were often referred to as "Messieurs des finances" or the "gens des finances".

In the same way, The Controller-General was assisted by four and, later five, Intendants of Commerce.

While in other ministries, only one individual -- the "Secretary of State" -- would attend the king's Counsel, the Contrôle Général appeared before the king as a group comprising the Controller-General and his Intendants of Finance and of Commerce. Because of this, the Contrôle Général considered itself essentially a separate division of the king's Counsel, and those outside of the Contrôle Général lost much of their say in financial matters.

In addition, given that decisions taken by the Contrôle Général -- even the smallest ones -- were supposed to derive from the king, the members of the Contrôle Général were required to sign their decisions as "arrêts du Conseil" ("decisions of the Counsel"), even when these administrative decisions had been decided merely by themselves outside of the king's Counsel. This was the case in 90% of the financial decisions made by the Contrôle Général, with only 10% having actually been decided in the Counsel.

The Contrôle Général had a very large personnel compared to other ministers. Most of the offices were in Paris, close to the bankers and financiers that the bureau dealt with. The Controller-Général had offices in Paris -- at the Palais Mazarin (rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs) which is today the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

) -- and at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

; he was assisted by a secretary and an aide. The Intendants of Finances were lodged in Paris, and were assisted by a secretary and by several aides.

See also

  • List of Finance Ministers of France
  • Superintendent of Finances
    Superintendent of Finances
    The Superintendent of Finances was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1561 to 1661. The position was abolished in 1661 with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet, and a new position was created, the Controller-General of Finances....

  • Intendant
    Intendant
    The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...

  • Généralité
    Généralité
    Recettes générales, commonly known as généralités , were the administrative divisions of France under the Ancien Régime and are often considered to prefigure the current préfectures...

  • Conseil du Roi
    Conseil du Roi
    The Conseil du Roi or King's Council is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the king of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice...

  • Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (France)
    Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (France)
    The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was one of the four or five specialized secretaries of state in France during the Ancien Régime. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs became a Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1791.-See also:...

  • Secretary of State of the Navy (France)
    Secretary of State of the Navy (France)
    The Secretary of State of the Navy was one of the four or five specialized secretaries of state in France during the Ancien Régime. This Secretary of State was responsible for the French navy and for French colonies...

  • Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi
    Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi
    The Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi was the secretary of state in France during the "Ancien Régime" and Bourbon Restoration in charge of the Département de la Maison du Roi...

  • Early Modern France
    Early Modern France
    Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...

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