Very rare Amsterdam edition of the first edition of Necker's memoir, published in the same year: Paris, Hôtel Du Thou, 1791. The text is written by Jacques Necker (1732-1804), a Genevan banker who served from 1777 till 1781 as finance minister for King Louis XVI. He was a reformer but his innovations sometimes caused great discontent.
Necker is remembered today for publicly disclosing France's financial budget for the first time in 1781. He was dismissed immediately. By 1788 the national debt brought France to a fiscal crisis and Necker was recalled to the court and again dismissed shortly afterwards. His second dismissal even was a factor in causing the Storming of the Bastille and within two days Necker was recalled again. In these years, however, Necker certainly contributed in creating political and social conditions that contributed to the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. He helped to shake down the system which was already coming to its end, but he was powerless to prevent it turning into a full-blown revolution. During the turmoil of the following years, Necker was arrested and was ultimately allowed to return to his native Switzerland. After having written his famous Traité de ladministration des finances de la France in 1784, in his (forced) retirement he published the present bitter and emotional memoirs as his final apologia in 1791. At least three different editions appeared in the same year, the present edition is the first published outside France.
The joints, corners and edges of the boards show minor signs of wear. Otherwise in very good condition. Harris, R.D., Jacques Necker: Reform Statesman of the Ancien Regime (1979) and the review by G. Taylor, in: Journal of Econ. Hist., 40 (1980), pp. 877-879; Necker and the Revolution of 1789 (1986), passim; STCN 29155623X (2 copies); WorldCat 458842139, 1154667369 (4 copies, incl. 1 also in the STCN); cf. Goldsmith 15022 (Paris 1791 ed.).