Bertrand Dufresne
Bertrand Dufresne | |
|---|---|
| Director of the Treasury | |
| In office 1800 – 22 February 1801 | |
| Member of the Council of Five Hundred | |
| In office 10 April – 4 September 1797 | |
| Director of the Treasury | |
| In office September 1790–1792 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 November 1736 |
| Died | 22 February 1801 (aged 64) |
Bertrand Dufresne (24 November 1736 – 22 February 1801) was a French financier, civil servant and politician, who served in multiple senior government positions before and after the French Revolution.
Early life
Born on 24 November 1736 in Navarrenx,[1] his father was Nicolas Dufresne, a cordwainer from Versailles, who after moving to Bearn married Anne Campagnet, a local Cagot woman.[2][3][4] In 1748 Dufresne was able to move to Bayonne to work as a bank clerk under the tutelage of Jean-François de La Borde.[2]
Later life
La Borde later recommended Dufresne to Étienne François de Choiseul, who in 1764 appointed him to the Court Bank in Versailles under Jean-Joseph de Laborde.[5] By 1767 he was one of the two main cashiers of the Caisse d'Escompte,[6][7] during which time he owned and lived at 22 Place Vendôme.[8] By 1775, he was the controller-paymaster at the Parisian Court of Accounts.[1][9] He then became first clerk of the Trésorerie générale du Royaume in 1777. He reorganised the office of general revenue in 1781.[10] He was later appointed receiver general at the Généralité de Rouen in 1782.[11]
The support of the Controller-General of Finances, Jacques Necker, enabled him to become a councillor of state, the intendant general of the French navy, and then from September 1790 until 1792, the director general of the public treasury;[12][1][10] during this period he lived on Rue de Richelieu.[13] In this period he was praised by his colleagues for his dedication to work and skill in finance.[14]
In August 1791 he had to step aside for the six commissioners of the new National treasury.[12] Through the revolutionary period Dufresne was a monarchist.[15][3][16] Imprisoned during the reign of terror, he was then released and elected deputy for the Seine in the Council of Five Hundred on 21 Germinal Year V (10 April 1797) and was placed in charge of public finances.[12][17] As secretary of the council, he was also in charge of supplies to the armies.
Dufresne was expelled after the coup of 18 Fructidor in Year V,[16] but as a long-time ally of Charles-François Lebrun, he was finally appointed to the Conseil d'État after the coup of 18 Brumaire, then appointed director general of the treasury.[12][18]
Death
Dufresne died 22 February 1801.[12][15] In honour of his work, Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned a bust of Dufresne to be placed within the treasury, which was dedicated on 19 February 1802 by François Barbé-Marbois.[15][19][20]
References
- ^ a b c Bosher 1964, p. 478.
- ^ a b Ganas 2004, pp. 5–6.
- ^ a b McCloy 1955, p. 48.
- ^ Bordes 1949, p. 437.
- ^ Ganas 2004, pp. 11–12.
- ^ "Arrest du Conseil d'état du Roi, portant établissement d'une Caisse d'escompte" [Arrest of the King's Council of State, establishing a Caisse d'Escompte] (in French). 1 January 1767. p. 2 – via Gallica.
- ^ Luthy 1960, p. 875.
- ^ Daudet 1911, pp. 357–358.
- ^ Legay 2009, p. 276.
- ^ a b Bruguière 1989, p. 106.
- ^ Bruguière 1989, pp. 105–106.
- ^ a b c d e Antonetti, Guy [in French] (2007). "Gaudin (Martin-Michel-Charles)". Les ministres des Finances de la Révolution française au Second Empire [The Ministers of Finance from the French Revolution to the Second Empire] (in French). Institut de la gestion publique et du développement économique. pp. 251–276 – via OpenEdition Books.
- ^ "Déclaration de Bertrand Dufresne, conseiller d'Etat, intendant du trésor Royal, propriétaire, rue de Richelieu" [Declaration of Bertrand Dufresne, State Councillor, Intendant of the Royal Treasury, owner, rue de Richelieu]. France Archives (in French). 13 March 1789.
- ^ Bosher 1964, pp. 479–480.
- ^ a b c Bosher 1964, pp. 478–479.
- ^ a b Ganas 2004, p. 34.
- ^ Ganas 2004, p. 31.
- ^ Ganas 2004, p. 39.
- ^ Mousnier, Roland (1979). "La Fonction Publique En France Du Début Du Seizième Siècle à La Fin Du Dix-Huitième Siècle" [The Civil Service in France from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the End of the Eighteenth Century]. Revue Historique (in French). 261 (2): 321–335. JSTOR 40953260.
- ^ Ganas 2004, p. 41.
Works cited
- Bordes, Maurice [in French] (1949). "Le subdélégué général Jean de Sallanave (1710-1781) et les origines du fonctionnarisme moderne dans la généralité d'Auch" [The subdelegate general Jean de Sallanave (1710–1781) and the origins of modern bureaucracy in the generality of Auch]. Annales du Midi (in French). 61 (7–8): 422–437. doi:10.3406/anami.1949.5677 – via Persee.
- Bruguière, Michel (1989). "Les receveurs généraux de Louis XVI: fossiles ou précurseurs ?" [The Receivers General of Louis XVI: Fossils or Precursors?]. Études et documents (in French). 1: 99–120 – via Persée.
- Bosher, J. F. (Autumn 1964). "The Premiers Commis des Finances in the Reign of Louis XVI". French Historical Studies. 3 (4). Duke University Press: 475–494. JSTOR 286152.
- Daudet, Ernest (15 March 1911). "La Conspiration Magon: Récit Des Temps Révolutionnaires: I: Les Dessous d'une Accusation" [The Magon Conspiracy: A Tale of Revolutionary Times: I: The Underpinnings of an Accusation]. Revue des Deux Mondes (in French). 2 (2): 356–390. JSTOR 44804714.
- Ganas, Pierre (October 2004). Bertrand Dufresne (1736–1801): Un descendent de cagots de Navarrenx au destin exceptionnel [Bertrand Dufresne (1736–1801): A descendant of Cagots from Navarrenx with an exceptional destiny] (in French). Navarrenx: Cercle Historique de l'Arribère. ISBN 978-2918404422.
- Legay, Marie‐Laure [in French] (June 2009). "The Beginnings of Public Management: Administrative Science and Political Choices in the Eighteenth Century in France, Austria, and the Austrian Netherlands". The Journal of Modern History. 81 (2). University of Chicago Press: 253–293. JSTOR 10.1086/598924.
- Luthy, H. (September–October 1960). "Necker et la Compagnie des Indes" [Necker and the East India Company]. Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (in French). 15e Année (5). Cambridge University Press: 852–881. JSTOR 27575454.
- McCloy, Shelby T. (1 January 1955). "The Cagots: A Despised People in France". South Atlantic Quarterly. 54 (1): 44–55. doi:10.1215/00382876-54-1-44.