Étienne Clavière (; 29 January 17358 December 1793) was a Genevan-born French

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

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

Career in Geneva and exile

Clavière was born on 29 January 1735 in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Republic of Geneva The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of forty-five Municipality, municipalities, and the seat of the governme ...

to Jean-Jacques Clavière, a cloth merchant. His father was a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

refugee from

Serres Serres ( ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northern Greece. The c ...

who was admitted to the bourgeoisie of Geneva in 1735. After a commercial

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

in Christian-Erlang, Clavière became a partner in the company ''Cazenove, Clavière et Fils''. He emerged as a spokesman for the bourgeoisie during the Genevan political unrest of 1766–1768, and became a member of the Council of Two Hundred in 1770. Clavière was one of the democratic leaders of the Geneva Revolution of 1782. After its suppression, he went into exile, becoming a financier in Paris in 1784. His brother moved to Brussels. Clavière associated with personalities from

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...

and Geneva, among them

Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (, , ; born Jean-Paul 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 ...

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

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

favoured—were given up when

Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (; 30 September 1732 – 9 April 1804) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan banker and statesman who served as List of Finance Ministers of France, finance minister for Louis XVI of France, Louis XVI. He was a reformer, but his innov ...

came to power in France, and Clavière, with most of his comrades, settled in Paris. In 1785, he collaborated with Theophile Cazenove. In 1787, Clavière visited the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

, together with

Jacques Pierre Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), also known as Brissot de Warville, was a French journalist, abolitionist, and revolutionary leading the political faction, faction of Girondins (initially called Brissotins) at the ...

, and met with the banker Pieter Stadnitski. The Patriots were losing influence and territory and the French politicians went back. He co-founded the with Brissot in 1787.

French Revolution

In 1789, he and Dumont allied themselves with

Honoré Mirabeau Honoré is a name of French origin and may refer to several people or places: Given name Sovereigns of Monaco Lords of Monaco *Honoré I, Lord of Monaco, Honoré I of Monaco Princes of Monaco *Honoré II, Prince of Monaco, Honoré II of Monaco ...

, 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 and the first president of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks and of the

Jacobin Club The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...

. Clavière also published some

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, 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'' ...

s under his own name, and through these and his friendship with Brissot, whom he had met in London, he was Minister of Finance in the Girondist ministry, from 24 March to 12 June 1792 as a suppleant member of the Legislative Assembly for

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

, 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 the 10 August storming of Tuileries Palace, he was again given charge of the finances in the provisional executive council, but could not offer a remedy to France's financial difficulties (in particular, rampant inflation caused primarily by the excessive production of assignats). Clavière was a casualty of the fall of the Girondins, being arrested on 2 June 1793, but was not placed on trial with the rest in October. 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 (; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. In October 1793, it became one of the most powerful engines of ...

, he died by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

Career in Geneva and exile

French Revolution

References

Further reading