Clavière associated with personalities from Neuchâtel and Geneva, among them Jean-Paul Marat and Étienne Dumont.

Their plans for a "new Geneva" in Ireland—which the government of William Pitt the Younger favoured—were given up when Jacques Necker came to power in France, and Clavière, with most of his comrades, settled in Paris.

[5] In 1787, Clavière visited the Dutch Republic, together with Jacques Pierre Brissot, and met with the banker Pieter Stadnitski.

[10] After the 10 August storming 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 of assignats).

He remained in prison until 8 December, when, on receiving notice that he was to appear on the next day before the Revolutionary Tribunal, he died by suicide.