676 A. D. 1 78 1 



1781 — In the beginning of the year 1781 Mr. Necker, direclor-gencral 

 of the finances of France, laid before the king his celebrated work, en- 

 titled * Compte rendu au roi,' being an account of his adminiftration of 

 the finances of that kingdom. 



In the later end of the year 1776 that great financier and honefl 

 ftatefman was placed at the head of the finances of France, which he 

 found greatly deranged, the receipts of the treafury being twenty-four 

 millions of livres (above one million fi:erling) fliort of the ordinary ex- 

 penditure *. In the following year the French were bufily preparing 

 for war; and in the year 1778 they were adually engaged in it. Not- 

 withftanding the extraordinary expenfes unavoidable in fuch a ftate of 

 affairs, Mr. Necker found means to make the king fenfible of the force 

 of that greatefl: of all maxims of finance, that EcoNO^ry is the sukest 

 SOURCE OF ABUNDANCE f. And, in confequcnce of the adoption of fo 

 falutary a maxim, the French revenue, from being unequal to the ex- 

 penditure in time of peace, was fo greatly improved, that in the year 

 1780, while war was raging, there was an excefs of 10,200,000 livres 

 above the expenditure, [Compte rendu, p. 10] which of courfe was pro- 

 ductive of great advantages in the negotiation of loans, the value of 

 the funds, &c. 



Such a fyfiiem of economy, if perfevered in, would have raifed the 

 finances of the kingdom to a very high pitch of profperity and credit. 

 The effeds of it were fo important, that fome of our flatefmen, in their 

 fpeeches in parliament, profefled their apprehenfions of greater danger 

 to this country from the improved ftate of the finances, than from the 

 cflforts of the armies and fleets, of France. But, if we were in any 

 danger from the reformation of the French finances, it was not pro- 

 bable that it would laft long. For the man, who fets himfelf to check 

 corruption, and to prevent peculation, muft foon fall a vidim to the 

 interefted malice of fuch a hoft of peculators, of corrupters and cor- 

 rupted, as he incenfes againfi; himfelf by his virtuous endeavours to 

 ferve the country, to which he has devoted the fervices and the ftudies 

 of his life. Asa reward for rendering the greateft fervice to the nation, 

 Mr. Necker was difmifled from his office ; and the revenue reverted to 

 its former ftate of corruption and peculation. 



The ftate of the commerce, current money, and population, of 

 France, as given by Mr. Necker, may be confidered as more im- 

 mediately connecled with the nature of this work. The annual aver- 

 age of the imports he ftates at 230 millions, and that of the exports at 

 300 millions, of livres. He eftimates the current money of the king- 



* Mr. Necker [^. 27] ftates the annual charge all the penfions given by all the other fovereignj 



under the name of penhons only (and there were of Europe amount to half the fum. 



many gratuitous payments tinder other names) at ■\ ' Non inteliigunt homines, quam magnum 



nventy-eight millions of livres: and he doubts if ' veftigal fit parfimonia,' fays Cicero, a great 



a ftatefman of antiquity. 



