Étienne de Silhouette
Encyclopedia
Étienne de Silhouette was a French
Controller-General of Finances
under Louis XV
.
He was born in Limoges
where his father Arnaud de Silhouette (from Biarritz
, the modern Standard Basque form of the name would be Zuloeta) was sent.
He studied finances and economics and spent a year in London learning from the economy of Britain.
He translated into French several works by Alexander Pope
, Henry Bolingbroke
, William Warburton
's The Alliance between Church and State, (1736) as Dissertations sur l’Union de la Religion, de la Morale, et de la Politique (1742) and Baltasar Gracián
's El político.
The party of the Prince of Condé
used his translations from English authors to criticize him but the protection of Madame Pompadour awarded him the position of Controller-General in 4 March 1759, the most extensive of all the administrative positions and a very unstable one.
His task was to curb the running deficit and strengthen the finances for the Seven Years' War
against Britain (1754–1763).
Public opinion preferred his 72-million-livre
s public loan to the ferme générale
, an outsourced tax collection system.
He also reduced spending by the royal house and revised pensions.
To favour free trade
, he eliminated some taxes and established new ones operating on a unified French market.
De Silhouette forecasted a bleak budget for 1760: income of 286 million livres compared to expenses of 503 million livres, including at least 94 million in debt
service.
In an attempt to restore the kingdom's finances by the English method of taxing the rich and privileged (nobility and church were exempt from taxes in the Ancien Regime).
de Silhouette devised the "general subvention," i.e., taxes on external signs of wealth (doors and windows, farms, luxury goods, servants, profits).
On 26 October, he took the war measure
of ordering the melting down of goldware and silverware
.
He was criticized by the nobility including Voltaire
, who thought his measures, though theoretically beneficial, were not suitable for war time and the French political situation.
On 20 November 1759, after eight months in the position, he left the court and retired to a chateau at Bry-sur-Marne
, where he set about improving it. After his death in 1767, his nephew and heir Clément de Laage completed that work.
Étienne de Silhouette's short tenure as finance chief caused him to become an object of ridicule. His penny-pinching manner led the term a la Silhouette to be applied to things perceived as cheap.
During this period an art form of growing popularity was a shadow profile cut from black paper. It provided a simple and inexpensive alternative for those who could not afford more decorative and expensive forms of portraiture, such as painting or sculpture. Those who considered it cheap attached the word "silhouette" to it. The name stuck and so today we know it as a silhouette
.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
Controller-General of Finances
Controller-General of Finances
The Controller-General of Finances was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1661 to 1791. The position replaced the former position of Superintendent of Finances , which was abolished with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet.- History :The term "contrôleur général" in...
under Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
.
He was born in Limoges
Limoges
Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....
where his father Arnaud de Silhouette (from Biarritz
Biarritz
Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....
, the modern Standard Basque form of the name would be Zuloeta) was sent.
He studied finances and economics and spent a year in London learning from the economy of Britain.
He translated into French several works by Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, Henry Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his atheism. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the...
, William Warburton
William Warburton
William Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...
's The Alliance between Church and State, (1736) as Dissertations sur l’Union de la Religion, de la Morale, et de la Politique (1742) and Baltasar Gracián
Baltasar Gracián
Baltasar Gracián y Morales, SJ was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud .-Biography:...
's El político.
The party of the Prince of Condé
Prince of Condé
The Most Serene House of Condé is a historical French house, a noble lineage of descent from a single ancestor...
used his translations from English authors to criticize him but the protection of Madame Pompadour awarded him the position of Controller-General in 4 March 1759, the most extensive of all the administrative positions and a very unstable one.
His task was to curb the running deficit and strengthen the finances for the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
against Britain (1754–1763).
Public opinion preferred his 72-million-livre
Livré
Livré-la-Touche is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France. Prior to October 6, 2008, it was known as Livré....
s public loan to the ferme générale
Ferme générale
The Ferme générale was, in ancien régime France, essentially an outsourced customs and excise operation which collected duties on behalf of the king, under six-year contracts...
, an outsourced tax collection system.
He also reduced spending by the royal house and revised pensions.
To favour free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
, he eliminated some taxes and established new ones operating on a unified French market.
De Silhouette forecasted a bleak budget for 1760: income of 286 million livres compared to expenses of 503 million livres, including at least 94 million in debt
Government debt
Government debt is money owed by a central government. In the US, "government debt" may also refer to the debt of a municipal or local government...
service.
In an attempt to restore the kingdom's finances by the English method of taxing the rich and privileged (nobility and church were exempt from taxes in the Ancien Regime).
de Silhouette devised the "general subvention," i.e., taxes on external signs of wealth (doors and windows, farms, luxury goods, servants, profits).
On 26 October, he took the war measure
War economy
War economy is the term used to describe the contingencies undertaken by the modern state to mobilise its economy for war production. Philippe Le Billon describes a war economy as a "system of producing, mobilising and allocating resources to sustain the violence".Many states increase the degree of...
of ordering the melting down of goldware and silverware
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
.
He was criticized by the nobility including Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, who thought his measures, though theoretically beneficial, were not suitable for war time and the French political situation.
On 20 November 1759, after eight months in the position, he left the court and retired to a chateau at Bry-sur-Marne
Bry-sur-Marne
Bry-sur-Marne is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.The commune of Bry-sur-Marne is part of the sector of Porte de Paris, one of the four sectors of the "new town" of Marne-la-Vallée.-Personalities:...
, where he set about improving it. After his death in 1767, his nephew and heir Clément de Laage completed that work.
The silhouette
During this period an art form of growing popularity was a shadow profile cut from black paper. It provided a simple and inexpensive alternative for those who could not afford more decorative and expensive forms of portraiture, such as painting or sculpture. Those who considered it cheap attached the word "silhouette" to it. The name stuck and so today we know it as a silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
.
Other works used
- Biography at a page on silhouette art.
- The corresponding page at the French WikipediaFrench WikipediaThe French Wikipedia is the French language edition of Wikipedia, spelt Wikipédia. This edition was started in March 2001, and has about articles as of , making it the third-largest Wikipedia overall, after the English-language and German-language editions...
. - extract from the Dictionnaire des surintendants et contrôleurs généraux des finances, Françoise Bayard, Joël Felix, Philippe Hamon, ISBN 2-11-090091-1