Étienne Clavière (29 January 17358 December 1793) was a

Genevan , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ...

-born French financier and politician of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. He was French Minister of Finance between 24 March and 12 June 1792, and between 10 August 1792 and 2 June 1793.

Geneva and London

A native of

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

, Clavière became one of the democratic leaders of the

Geneva Revolution of 1782 The Geneva Revolution of 1782 (french: La révolution genevoise de 1782) was a short-lived attempt to broaden the franchise and include men of modest means in the republican government of the oligarchic Genevan city-state. Background In 1782 the c ...

. After its failure, he went into exile, becoming a financier in Paris in 1784. His brother moved to Brussels. Clavière associated with personalities from

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (Fra ...

and

, among them

Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the '' sans-culottes'', a radica ...

and Étienne Dumont. Their plans for a ''new Geneva'' in Ireland—which the government of

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ir ...

favoured—were given up when Jacques Necker came to power in France, and Clavière, with most of his comrades, settled in Paris. In 1785 he collaborated with

Theophile Cazenove Theophilus Cazenove, or Theophile Cazenove (13 October 1740 – 6 March 1811), was a Dutch financier and one of the agents of the Holland Land Company. Life and career Theophilus Cazenove was baptized in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam as the son ...

. In 1787 he visited the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiograph ...

, together with Jacques Pierre Brissot, and met with

Pieter Stadnitski Pieter Stadnitski (2 April 1735 – 29 November 1795) was a Dutch broker and financier who invested in the United States, including federal and state debt, canal companies, and land speculation, especially the Holland Land Company. He was the f ...

, a banker. The patriots were losing influence and territory and the French politicians went back.

French Revolution

In 1789, he and Dumont allied themselves with Honoré Mirabeau, secretly collaborating for him on the '' Courrier de Provence'' and also preparing speeches for Mirabeau to deliver—this association with Clavière sustained Mirabeau's reputation as a financier. He was one of the founding members of the Abolitionism in France Society of the Friends of the Blacks and of the

Jacobin Club , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = P ...

. Clavière also published some

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...

s under his own name, and through these and his friendship with Jacques Pierre Brissot, whom he had met in London, he was

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

in the Girondist ministry, from 24 March to 12 June 1792 (as a suppleant member of the Legislative Assembly for

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/ Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributa ...

, and supported Brissot).Richard Whatmore et James Livesey, « Étienne Clavière, Jacques-Pierre Brissot et les fondations intellectuelles de la politique des girondins », Annales historiques de la Révolution française n ligne 321 , juillet-septembre 2000, mis en ligne le 21 février 2006, consulté le 03 octobre 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ahrf/175 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ahrf.175 After 10 August (the storming of the Tuileries Palace) he was again given charge of the finances in the provisional executive council, but could not offer a remedy to France's difficulties, concerning the assignats. Clavière shared in the fall of the Girondists, being arrested on 2 June 1793, but was not placed on trial with the rest in October. (He was disliked by the

Sans-culottes The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...

and Robespierre as he disapproved the

insurrection of 31 May - 2 June 1793 Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

.) He remained in prison until 8 December, when, on receiving notice that he was to appear on the next day before the

Revolutionary Tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (french: Tribunal révolutionnaire; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. It eventually became one of the ...

, he committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

Geneva and London

French Revolution

References

Further reading