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MOLLIEN, NICOLAS FRANCOIS, COUNT (175...

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 669 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MOLLIEN, See also:NICOLAS See also:FRANCOIS, See also:COUNT (1758-1850) , See also:French financier, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the 28th of See also:February 1758. The son of a See also:merchant, he See also:early showed ability, and entered the See also:ministry of See also:finance, where he See also:rose rapidly; in 1784, at the See also:time of the renewal of the arrangements with the farmers-See also:general of the taxes, he was practically See also:chief in that See also:department and made terms advantageous to the See also:national See also:exchequer. Under See also:Calonne he improved the returns from the farmers-general; and he was largely instrumental in bringing about the erection of the See also:octroi walls of Paris in See also:place of the insufficient wooden barriers. He, however, advocated an abolition of some of the restrictions on imports, as came about in the famous Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1786, to the conclusion of which he contributed in no small measure. The events of the French Revolution threatened at times to overwhelm Mollien. In 1794 he was brought befohe the revolutionary tribunal of See also:Evreux as a suspect, and narrowly escaped the See also:fate that befell many of the former farmers-general. He retired to See also:England, where he observed the See also:financial See also:measures adopted at the crisis of 1796-1797. After the coup d'eiat of See also:Brumaire (See also:November 1799) he re-entered the ministry of finance, then under Gaudin, who entrusted to him important duties as director of the new caisse d'amortissement. See also:Napoleon, See also:hearing of his abilities, frequently consulted him on financial matters, and after the See also:Proclamation of the See also:Empire (May 1804) made him a councillor of See also:state. The severe financial crisis of See also:December 1805 to See also:January 1806 served to reveal once more his See also:sound sense. Napoleon, returning in haste not See also:long after See also:Austerlitz, dismissed See also:Barge-Marbois from the ministry of the See also:treasury and confided to Mollien those important duties. He soon succeeded in freeing the treasury from the interference of See also:great banking houses.

In other respects, however, he did something towards curbing Napoleon's See also:

desire for a precise regulation of the See also:money See also:market. The conversations between them on this subject, as reported in Mollien's See also:Memoirs, are of high See also:interest, and show that the ministry had a far truer See also:judgment on financial matters than the See also:emperor, who often twitted him with being an ideologue. In 1808 Mollien was awarded the See also:title of count. He soon came to see the impossibility of the measures termed collectively " the continentalsystem "; but his warnings on that subject were of no avail. After the first See also:abdication of the emperor (See also:April Is, 1814), Mollien retired into private See also:life, but took up his ministerial duties at the See also:appeal of Napoleon during the See also:Hundred Days (1815), after which he again retired. See also:Louis XVIII. wished to bring him back to See also:office, but he resisted these appeals. Nominated a peer in 1818, he took some See also:part in connexion with the See also:annual budgets. He lived to see the See also:election of Louis Napoleon as See also:president of the Second See also:Republic, and died in April 1850, with the exception of See also:Pasquier, the last surviving See also:minister of Napoleon I. See Mollien's Memoires d'un ministre du tresor public 1780-1815, 4 vols. (Paris 1845; new ed., Paris, 3 vols., 1898) ; A. G. P.

See also:

Barante, Etudes historiques et biographiques; See also:Salvandy, See also:Notice sur Mollien; also M. M. C. Gaudin (duo de See also:Gate), Notice historique sur See also:les finances de la See also:France 1800-1814 (Paris, 1818). (J. HL.

End of Article: MOLLIEN, NICOLAS FRANCOIS, COUNT (1758-1850)

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