Preserving the Monarchy: The Comte de Vergennes 1774-1787

by Munro Price

Overview

The Comte de Vergennes is best known as one of the great foreign ministers of modern French history, but for much of the 1780s he was also first minister in all but name. This is the first book to deal in depth with the critical part he played in French domestic policies on the eve of the Revolution. His financial reforms, fully examined here, were the last attempt to restructure the monarchy in accordance with its traditional principles. The failure of this undertaking accelerated the final collapse of the royal government. This study is based on important new archival material, as well as on established sources which are often reinterpreted here.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521465663
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/26/1995
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Recalled to life; king, queen, and first minister: the Guines affair; 2. The question of reform: Turgot, Necker, and Vergennes; 3. Vergennes as first minister: the comité des finances; 4. The fall of the comité des finances: the comité and credit policy; the crisis of the caisse d'escompte; the reform of the general farm; conclusion; 5. The politics of judicial reform; 6. The politics of retrenchment; 7. The ministry, its divisions, and the parlement of Paris, 1785–6; the diamond necklace affair; 8. The Dutch imbroglio; 9. Death and posterity; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

"In this excellent book, Munro Price examines Vergennes's role in domestic politics—as distinguished from his career in diplomacy—and explains how experience and growth brought this conservative Burgundian to moderate reform....an impressive command of private and public archival material." American Historical Review

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