Charles Alexandre de Calonne

A brilliant and charming magistrate from Douai, Calonne rose to Intendant of Flanders before Louis XVI appointed him to manage the crushing financial deficits incurred during the American Revolutionary War. Calonne stimulated the economy through public works and commercial treaties.

Recognizing in 1786 that piecemeal borrowing could no longer stave off ruin, he drafted a sweeping reform plan proposing a universal land tax abolishing the tax exemptions of the nobility and clergy. When the aristocratic Assembly of Notables fiercely rejected his plan in 1787, Calonne was dismissed, precipitating the road to the 1789 Estates-General.