Étienne de Silhouette

Étienne de Silhouette (5 July 1709 – 20 January 1767) was a French Ancien Régime Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV.

[2] De Silhouette studied finance and economics assiduously and spent a year in London learning about the economy of Britain.

He managed to curtail Royal household expenditure, revised state pensions and to encourage free trade he reduced some ancient taxes whilst establishing new ones in accordance with the vision of a unified French market.

He was criticized by the nobility including Voltaire, who thought his measures, though theoretically beneficial, were not suitable for wartime and the French political situation.

[4] His penny-pinching manner led the term à la Silhouette to be applied to things perceived as cheap or austere.