Compte rendu au Roi par M. Necker Directeur général des Finances Au mois de Janvier 1781. Imprimé par ordre de sa Majesté

“FRANCE'S ACCOUNTS MADE PUBLIC AND THE SYMBOLIC END OF THE ANCIEN RÉGIME” (SIDOLI-PALUMBO) - AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY OF THE CABINET DU ROI ISSUE WITH TWO DIFFERENT ENGRAVED FRONTISPIECES

[Bound with:] EIUSDEM. Mémoire donné au Roi par M. Neker, En 1778. Londres, 1781.

Two works in one volume, 4to (244x194 mm) and 8vo (215x135 mm). Compte rendu: engraved frontispiece with Necker's bust, another engraved frontispiece (Allégorie pour le frontispice du Compte rendu au Roi par M. Necker, en 1781), [4], 116 pp., one folding letterpress table (Revenus and Dépenses) between pp. 114 and 115, and 2 hand-colored folding maps (Carte des Gabelles and Carte des Traités). Mémoire: 32 pp. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt spine, red edges (worn and rubbed, joints and spine partially repaired, traces of lettering piece on spine). On the front flyleaf, stamped in red, “ex libris, J.M. Defosseux 17[?]4”. On the title page trimmed manuscript note at the top. Compte rendu: light browning throughout, some occasional foxing and marginal staining. Mémoire: uncut with deckle edges.

First edition, first issue printed in January 1781 by the Imprimerie du Cabinet du Roi in a few copies which were not for sale. The nearly contemporary second issue was printed by the Imprimerie Royale. The present copy is exceptional in that it contains two engraved frontispieces, not present in most copies.

“Jacques Necker (1732-1804), was one of the most celebrated finance ministers of the Ancien Régime. He was appointed Directeur général by Louis XVI as the successor to Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. Necker was born in Geneva, the son of a Prussian professor of public law in Geneva. From 1747, he had studied banking in Paris at Isaac Vernets, where he became a partner by 1762 before co-founding the bank Thelusson, Necker et Ce. Encouraged by his wife, he became the Director of the French East India Company. In 1776, after the failure of Turgot's reforming attempts to liberalise the French economy, the young Louis XVI called upon Necker to succeed him. He was appointed Directeur géneral of the indebted finances of France in June 1777. Necker's first concern was to bring ordinary expenditure into balance with ordinary revenue. His reforms were known as ‘améliorations'; he cut expenses seemingly everywhere he could. While his policy to contain expenditure was consistent with that of his predecessors, he eliminated more venal offices, abolished numerous sinecures, divided the ‘taille' capitation tax more equally, abolished the ‘vingtième d'industrie', and reduced numerous treasurers and controllers for military and royal households. He also reformed the Ferme Générale, the oligarchy of the powerful ‘tax farmers' contracted by the government and put some of their activities under State supervision. His true skill, however, was the acquisition and juggling of credit. He borrowed millions through bankers in his native Geneva and signed off on a series of new and revised loans to help fund the French debt; he built up a staggering public debt and ruinous rates of interest to avoid raising taxes but created the illusion of a recovering economy. Not fully aware of the exposure of his national finances, Louis XVI committed his support to the American Revolution, first with material aid for the rebellious American colonists, then with a declaration of war against Great Britain in March 1778. Necker financed it almost entirely by borrowing, a fact that shocked his detractors, rendered the debt unsustainable by early 1781 and disappointed the king who blamed him. In February 1781, Necker controversially published the first Compte rendu au Roi, a statement of the king's finances, not a budget: ‘un compte public à lui rendre du succès de mes travaux, & de l'état actuel de ses Finances' (p. 1). In making the accounts public, Necker disclosed the secrets of the government to the public for the first time in history, eight years before the French Revolution. The report revealed at the same time the economic crisis of France, and also pointed out the inevitable decline of the monarchy. In the Compte Necker presented a surplus of revenue over expenditure amounting to ten million livres, in order to strengthen his statement, attract investors, and reassure public opinion. His policy encountered however the firm opposition of farmers, financiers, aristocracy and parliament. The publication triggered a heated debate; on the one hand, the Compte shed a favourable light on its author and his administration and, by showing a surplus, kept up the government's credit. On the other hand, many detractors claimed that Necker had ‘cooked the books'; hence he was dismissed by the king a few months after the publishing of his Compte rendu. Most critics relied on the attacks of his successor Calonne, who claimed to have found an error of 56 million livres, which Necker denied. In spite of the debate, most contemporary scholars seems to agree on the fact that Necker's report was accurate, although there were delays in cash collection […] The publication had a terrific impact on public opinion. The commercial success of the Compte rendu - one of the first reports of its kind, although incomplete - was immense. ?Necker's Compte rendu, printed at the Imprimerie Royale, sold at the rate of 3,000 a day and total sales exceeded 40,000 copies. Many counterfeit editions were published at the same time making the Compte the all-time best-selling financial statement ever issued. Ironically, its very success caused Necker's downfall in that jealousy led to discredit him in the eyes of the King. They succeeded, and Necker was dismissed' (Carpenter, p. 22)” (M. Palumbo-E. Sidoli, eds., Books That Made Europe. Economic Governance and Democracy from 15^th to 20^th century, Brussels, 2016, p. 172).

The Mémoire is known in several different issues printed in the same year. Necker here develops his ideas concerning the reform of France's provincial administration.

Compte rendu: Kress, B.360; Goldsmiths, 12183-12184; Einaudi, 4094; Sraffa, 4327. Mémoire: Kress, B.389; Goldsmiths, 12233; Einaudi, 4105-07.

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