The Superintendent of Finances (french: Surintendant des finances) was the name of the minister in charge of finances in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

from 1561 to 1661. The position was abolished in 1661 with the downfall of

Nicolas Fouquet Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux (27 January 1615 – 23 March 1680) was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. He had a glittering career, and acquired enormous wealth ...

, and a new position was created, the

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 ('' ...

History

Before 1561

Prior to the creation of the position "Surintendant des finances", France's royal financial administration had been run—from the time of Charles VII—by two financial boards which worked in a collegial manner: the four ''Généraux des finances'' oversaw the collection of taxes ( taille, etc.) and the four ''Trésoriers de France'' (Treasurers) oversaw revenues from royal lands (the "domaine"). Together they were often referred to as "Messieurs des finances". The four members of each board were divided by geographical circumscriptions ("recettes générales" or "

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''. At the time of the French Revolution, there ...

s"; the areas were named Languedoïl, Languedoc, Normandy, and Outre-Seine and Yonne), with the directors of the "Languedoïl" region typically having an honorific preeminence. The double-board was assisted in its work by four "contrôleurs généraux". Before 1523-24, the King's Council had very little direct say on the day-to-day running of the double-boards. In 1523, Francis I, in an effort to exert a more direct control over royal finances during his European wars and to circumvent the double-board (accused of poor oversight) -- created a separate Royal Treasury (''Trésor de l'Épargne'') directly under the control of the King's Council (analogous institutions had existed before), but the initial results were disappointing. From this moment through the next 40 years, numerous administrative reforms were attempted: increase in the number of "généralités"; unification of the tasks of the double-board into new positions (such as two "contrôleurs généraux" subservient to the Royal Treasurer); changes in the royal financial courts ("

Cour des Comptes The ''Cour des Comptes'' ("Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 and ...

", " Cour des Aides"); creation of numerous provincial financial officers and boards; creation of the positions of "intendents" of finance (see below). With the increased role of the King's Council in financial matters, certain high-ranked nobles (like Anne de Montmorency or Charles of Lorraine, Cardinal of Guise) exerted a stronger advisory role over finances. Although there was no official "Minister of Finances" in this period, certain individuals exerted an equivalent administrative role. ;Under Francis I: *1518–1524: Jacques de Beaune, baron de Semblançay ;Under Henry II: *1552: André Guillart *1556: Jean de Saint Marcel d'Avançon

Surintendant des finances

The position "Surintendant des finances" was officially created in 1561 during the reign of Charles IX, although some royal financial advisors had performed analogous duties previously. The position grew out of the positions of Intendants of Finances, officially created in 1552 by Henry II to oversee royal finances during the king's travels in Germany (he sought an alliance with Protestant Princes). At the time, three Intendants of Finances were named, and one of them would also participate in the Privy Counsel, thus the designation "superintendent". In 1561, the position fell to two individuals:

Artus de Cossé-Brissac Artus de Cossé-Brissac (1512–1582), lord of Gonnor and Comte de Secondigny, was a Marshal of France, an office he was elevated to in 1567. He served to administer the armies finances during the first of the French Wars of Religion and would l ...

and the comte de Chaulnes. An administrative ruling on 23 October 1563 mandated once-a-week reunions of the Conseil du Roi (King's Counsel) to deal with financial questions of finances; to this meeting would come the superintendent of finances and other officers of country's financial administration, such as the Treasurer (trésorier de l'Épargne). In 1567, Cossé was promoted to maréchal de France; he resigned his post in favor of René de Birague (as did too, apparently, the comte de Chaulnes); René de Birague was thus the sole "superintendent". In 1570, the position was assumed by the ''Conseil royal des finances''. Henry III suppressed the ''Conseil royal des finances'' in 1574 and named a superintendent. Henry IV replaced the superintendent with a counsel. In this way, the position appeared intermittently, its fate tied to that of the ''Conseil des finances''. On 5 September 1661,

was arrested for financial misdealings and brought to trial. On the 12th, the position of Supertintendant was replaced by a ''Conseil royal des finances'', attended by an intendant, named the

Contrôleur général des 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 ('' ...

; this position first fell to Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

List of Surintendants des finances

*1561-1567:

; Louis d' Ongnies, comte de Chaulnes *1568-1571: René de Birague *1574-1588: Pompone de Bellièvre *1588-1594: François d'O *1594-1597: A Council of 9 members: Pompone de Bellièvre,

Henri I de Montmorency Henri I de Montmorency (15 June 1534 in Chantilly, Oise – 2 April 1614), Marshal of France, and Constable of France, seigneur of Damville, served as Governor of Languedoc from 1563 to 1614. Biography Born on 15 June 1534, Henri was the son ...

, Albert de Gondi, Gaspard de Schomberg, Jacques de la Grange-le-Roy, Pierre Forges de Fresnes, Philippe Hurault de Chiverny and Nicolas de Harlay, sieur de Sancy *1597-1611: Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully *1611-1616: A Council of 3 members: Pierre Jeannin, Guillaume de L'Aubespin and Jacques-Auguste de Thou *1616-1617:

Claude Barbin Claude may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...

*1617-1619: Pierre Jeannin *1619-1623:

Henri de Schomberg Henri de Schomberg, Comte de Nanteuil (1575 – 17 November 1632), was a Marshal of France during the reign of Louis XIII. Biography Schomberg was born at Paris. Superintendent of Finances from 1619 to 1623. He became Marshal of France in 162 ...

*1623-1624: Charles de La Vieuville *1624-1626: A Council of 2 members: Jean de Bochart, Michel de Marillac *1626-1632: Antoine Coiffier de Ruzé, marquis d'Effiat *1632-1640: A Council of 2 members: Claude de Bullion, Claude Bouthilier *1640-1643: Claude Bouthilier *1643-1647: A Council of 3 members: Nicolas de Bailleuil; Claude de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux; Michel Particelli d'Hémery *1647-1648: Council of above without de Bailleuil *1648-1649: Charles de La Porte *1649-1650: Same council as earlier *1650-1651: René de Longueil *1651-1653: Charles de La Vieuville *1653-1659: A Council of 2 members:

Abel Servien Abel Servien, marquis de Sablé et de Boisdauphin and comte de La Roche des Aubiers (1 November 159317 February 1659) was a French diplomat who served Cardinal Mazarin and signed for the French the Treaty of Westphalia. He was an early member of th ...

*1659-1661: Nicolas Fouquet

References

*''This article is largely based on a translation of the article Surintendant des finances from the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has articl ...

on 12 August 2006.'' * Bernard Barbiche, ''Les Institutions de la monarchie française à l'époque moderne'', Paris: PUF, collection "Premier Cycle", 1999. * Daniel Dessert, ''Argent, pouvoir et société au grand siècle'', Paris: Fayard, 1984. * Arlette Jouanna, Philippe Hamon, Dominique Biloghi, Guy Le Thiec, "Finances", ''La France de la Renaissance: Histoire et Dictionnaire,'' Paris: Laffont, 2001. {{Finance Ministers of France Offices in the Ancien Régime Economic history of the Ancien Régime

History

Before 1561

Surintendant des finances

List of Surintendants des finances

See also

References