Charles de calonne biography sample

Overview

Episode 5, &#;Calonne and the Assembly of Rebels&#;, explores Charles Alexandre de Calonne&#;s time in office as the Controller-General of Finances. Initially failing to reform the state&#;s finances, Calonne realizes in that the French nation will go bankrupt without radical changes to the taxation system.  In an effort to avoid the Parlements and an Estates-General, Calonne convenes an Assembly of Notables to try to legitimize some radical reforms in order to save the state&#;s finances. Unfortunately for Calonne, the Assembly of Notables fast evolves into an Assembly of Rebels.

The Taxation System of the Old Regime

To claim that the taxes of the Old Regime could be grouped into four broad categories implies that the Old Regime had a taxation system to begin with. In reality, it is perhaps more accurate to suggest that the Old Regime had a series of taxation policies that were created at various points in time and that there nothing much systematic about those policies when viewed as a portfolio. For simplicity purposes, however, the taxes of the Old Regime can be grouped as follows: farmed taxes, direct taxes, religious taxes, and feudal dues.

Farmed Taxes

Much like some tax collectors in Ancient Rome, the Farmer Generals were a group of contractors who bid for the right to collect a number of indirect taxes (farmed taxes) every six years. Having won the contract, they paid the Monarchy a fixed sum, and they got to keep the difference between what they actually raised and what they had to pay to the King. Unsurprisingly, these individuals were very rich, were very hated, and were very dead by the time the Revolution turns sour. At least 25, individuals worked for the Farmer Generals, meaning they were the largest employer in the nation after the Army, Navy, and Church. The majority of those individuals made up what was essentially a paramilitary force that, armed with both weapons and the authority of the king, enabled the Farmers to forc

French statesman

Charles Alexandre de Calonne (20 January &#;&#; 30 October ), titled Count of Hannonville in , was a French statesman, best known for being Louis XVI's Controller-General of Finances (minister of finance) in the years leading up to the French Revolution.

Calonne attempted repeatedly to pass reforms that lowered government spending and implemented property added value tax among other things, but failed due to popular opposition to his policies from the Parlement and the Assembly of Notables. Realizing that the Parlement of Paris would never agree to reform, Calonne handpicked an Assembly of Notables in to approve new taxes. When they refused, Calonne's reputation plummeted and he was forced to leave the country.

Origins and rise to prominence

Born in Douai of an upper-class family, he entered the legal profession and became a lawyer to the general council of Artois, procureur to the parlement of Douai, Master of Requests (France), intendant of Metz () and of Lille (). He seems to have been a man with notable business abilities and an entrepreneurial spirit, while generally unscrupulous in his political actions. In the terrible crisis preceding the French Revolution, when successive ministers tried in vain to replenish the exhausted royal treasury, Calonne was summoned as Controller-General of Finances, an office he assumed on 3 November

He owed the position to the Comte de Vergennes, who for over three years continued to support him. According to the Habsburg ambassador, Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, his public image was extremely poor. Calonne immediately set about remedying the fiscal crisis, and he found in Louis XVI enough support to create a vast and ambitious plan of revenue-raising and administrative centralization. Calonne focused on maintaining public confidence through building projects and spending, which was mainly designed to maintain the Cro

Charles-Alexandre de Calonne

Paving the Way to the French Revolution

National Debt

Assembly of Notables

Estates General

 National Assembly
 

In a nutshell, Calonne's struggle to lower the country's debts was flawed by insufficient counteractions.

By the time Calonne was fired, he had already pushed the Jeannie out of the bottle by bringing the country's important men together (, see Assembly of Notables) and telling them that the King, although broke for years, was still living in style and spunky enough to impose new taxes.

The Notables referred the issue to the Estates General, and soon after the King was nodding his head for the final time.

And so, unintentionally, Calonne was paving the way for the French Revolution.

Charles-Alexandre Calonne's Life and Career

Calonne was born on January 20, at Douai, located three car hours north of Paris, France.

At the time of Calonne's birth, Louis XV ruled France, and the War of the Polish Succession raged. France cared, because Louis was married to Maria Karolina, the daughter of the Polish king.

Back to Calonne's career.

In , he became intendant* of the généralité of Metz.

In , King Louis XV died and his grandson became King Louis XVI.

In , Calonne became intendant* of the généralité of Lille.

(Intendant at Metz and Lille: Not / /
See Biographie du Parlement de Metz by Emmanuel Michel, )

*What on earth is an inte