Michel Chamillart or Chamillard (2 January 1652 – 14 April 1721) was a French statesman, a minister of King

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of ...

. Chamillart was born in Paris of a family recently raised to the nobility. Following the usual career of a statesman of his time he became in turn

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

of the '' parlement'' of Paris (1676), master of requests (1686), and intendant of the generality of Rouen (January 1689). His attractive personality won the confidence of

Madame de Maintenon Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

and pleased the king. In 1690 he was made intendant of finances, and on 5 September 1699 the king appointed him

Controller-General of Finances The Controller-General or Comptroller-General of Finances (french: Contrôleur général des finances) was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1661 to 1791. It replaced the former position of Superintendent of Finances ('' ...

, to which he added on the following 7 January the

ministry of war Ministry of War may refer to: * Ministry of War (imperial China) (c.600–1912) * Chinese Republic Ministry of War (1912–1946) * Ministry of War (Kingdom of Bavaria) (1808–1919) * Ministry of War (Brazil) (1815–1999) * Ministry of War (Estoni ...

. From the first, Chamillart's position was a difficult one. The deficit was more than 53 million

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

, and the credit of the state was almost exhausted. Chamillart lacked the intelligence and energy necessary for the situation, and was unable to moderate the king's warlike tastes, or to inaugurate economic reforms. He could only employ the usual expedients of the time—the immoderate sale of offices, the debasement of the coinage (five times in six years), reduction of the rate of interest on state debts, and increased taxation. Chamillart attempted to force into circulation a kind of paper money, ''billets de monnaie'', with disastrous results owing to the state of credit. He studied Vauban's project for the royal tithe, and Boisguillebert's proposition for the ''

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 was based on how much land it held, and was directly paid to the state. History Originally o ...

'', but did not adopt them. In October 1706 he showed the king that the debts immediately due amounted to 288 million, and that the deficit already foreseen for 1707 was 160 million. In October 1707 he saw with consternation that the revenue for 1708 was already entirely eaten up by anticipation, so that neither money nor credit remained for 1708. In these conditions Chamillart, who had often complained of the overwhelming burden he was carrying, and who had already wished to retire in 1706, resigned his office of controller-general. Public opinion attributed to him the ruin of the country, though he had tried in 1700 to improve the condition of commerce by the creation of a council of commerce. As secretary of state for war he was responsible for raising an army for the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

, and had to reorganize it three times, after the defeats of 1704, 1706 and 1708. With an empty treasury he succeeded only in part, and he warned the king that the enemy would soon be able to dictate the terms of peace. He was reproached with having secured the command of the army which besieged

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(1706) for his son-in-law, the incapable duc de la Feuillade. Even Madame de Maintenon became hostile to him, and he was dismissed from his position on 9 June 1709, retiring to his estates. Chamillart's papers were published by Gustave Esnault, ' (2 vols, Paris, 1885); and by A de Boislisle in vol. 2 of his ' (1883).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamillart, Michel 1652 births 1721 deaths French untitled nobility Secretaries of State for War (France) French Ministers of Finance