Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Recalled to life; king, queen, and first minister: the Guines affair; 2. The question of reform: Turgot, Necker, and Vergennes; 3. Vergennes as first minister: the comité des finances; 4. The fall of the comité des finances: the comité and credit policy; the crisis of the caisse d'escompte; the reform of the general farm; conclusion; 5. The politics of judicial reform; 6. The politics of retrenchment; 7. The ministry, its divisions, and the parlement of Paris, 1785–6; the diamond necklace affair; 8. The Dutch imbroglio; 9. Death and posterity; Bibliography.

Promotional Information

This 1995 book is a study of Vergennes' domestic policy role on the eve of the French Revolution.

Reviews

"In this excellent book, Munro Price examines Vergennes's role in domestic politics--as distinguished from his career in diplomacy--and explains how experience and growth brought this conservative Burgundian to moderate reform...an impressive command of private and public archival material." American Historical Review