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Étienne Clavière | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by François Bonneville,c. 1790 | |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 24 March 1792 – 12 June 1792 | |
| Preceded by | Louis Hardouin Tarbé |
| Succeeded by | Antoine Duranthon |
| In office 10 August 1792 – 2 June 1793 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Delaville-Leroulx |
| Succeeded by | Louis Grégoire Deschamps Destournelles |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1735-01-29)29 January 1735 Geneva, Republic of Geneva |
| Died | 8 December 1793(1793-12-08) (aged 58) Paris, French Republic |
| Political party | Girondins |
| Signature | .png) |
Étienne Clavière (French pronunciation:[etjɛnklavjɛʁ]; 29 January 1735 – 8 December 1793) was a Genevan-born Frenchfinancier and politician of theFrench Revolution. He was theFrench Minister of Finance between 24 March and 12 June 1792, and again between 10 August 1792 and 2 June 1793.
Clavière was born on 29 January 1735 inGeneva,Republic of Geneva to Jean-Jacques Clavière, acloth merchant.[1] His father was aHuguenot refugee fromSerres who was admitted to thebourgeoisie of Geneva in 1735.[2] After a commercialapprenticeship inChristian-Erlang, Clavière became a partner in the companyCazenove, Clavière et Fils.[1] He emerged as a spokesman for the bourgeoisie during the Genevan political unrest of 1766–1768, and became a member of theCouncil of Two Hundred in 1770.[1]
Clavière was one of the democratic leaders of theGeneva Revolution of 1782.[1] After its suppression, he went into exile, becoming a financier in Paris in 1784.[3] His brother moved to Brussels. Clavière associated with personalities fromNeuchâtel and Geneva, among themJean-Paul Marat andÉtienne Dumont. Their plans for a "new Geneva" in Ireland—which the government ofWilliam Pitt the Younger favoured—were given up whenJacques Necker came to power in France, and Clavière, with most of his comrades, settled in Paris.[4] In 1785, he collaborated withTheophile Cazenove.[5]
In 1787, Clavière visited theDutch Republic, together withJacques Pierre Brissot, and met with the bankerPieter Stadnitski. ThePatriots were losing influence and territory and the French politicians went back.[6][7][8] He co-founded theGallo-American Society [fr] with Brissot in 1787.[1]
In 1789, he and Dumont allied themselves withHonoré Mirabeau, secretly collaborating for him on theCourrier de Provence and also preparing speeches for Mirabeau to deliver—this association with Clavière sustained Mirabeau's reputation as a financier.[4] He was one of the founding members and the first president of theSociety of the Friends of the Blacks and of theJacobin Club.[9]
Clavière also published somepamphlets under his own name, and through these and his friendship with Brissot, whom he had met in London, he wasMinister of Finance in theGirondist ministry, from 24 March to 12 June 1792[4] as a suppleant member of theLegislative Assembly forSeine, and supported Brissot.[10]
After the 10 Auguststorming 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 ofassignats). Clavière was a casualty of thefall 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 theRevolutionary Tribunal, he died bysuicide.[4]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Clavière, Étienne".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 469.
