During his five years in office (1776-1781)
Necker applied business methods to the royal finances. He borrowed
400,000,000 francs from his banker friends, reformed the collection of
taxes, reduced expenditures, and carefully audited the accounts. In
1781 he issued a report or "Account Rendered of the Financial
Condition." The bankers were delighted; the secrets of the royal
treasury were at last common property; [Footnote: _The Compte
Rendu_, as it was called in France, was really not accurate; Necker,
in order to secure credit for his financial administration, made
matters appear better than they actually were.] and Necker was praised
to the skies.
[Sidenote: Marie Antoinette]
While Necker's Parisian friends rejoiced, his enemies at court prepared
his downfall. Now the most powerful enemy of Necker's reforms and
economies was the queen, Marie Antoinette. She was an Austrian
princess, the daughter of Maria Theresa, and in the eyes of the French
people she always remained a hated foreigner--"the Austrian," they
called her--the living symbol of the ruinous alliance between Habsburgs
and Bourbons which had been arranged by a Madame de Pompadour and which
had contributed to the disasters and disgrace of the Seven Years' War
[Footnote: See above, pp.
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