Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville

[1] In 1721, he was counsel to the Parlement of Paris, in 1728 he was maître des requêtes, and ten years later was made president of the Great Council; although he had opposed the court in the Unigenitus dispute, he was appointed intendant of Hainaut in 1743.

From this position, through the influence at court of his old friend the marquis d'Argenson, he was called to succeed Philibert Orry as Controller-General of Finances in December 1745.

On taking office, he found that in the four years of the War of the Austrian Succession the economies of Cardinal Fleury had been exhausted, and he was forced to develop the system of borrowing which was bringing French finances to the verge of bankruptcy.

However, there were loud remonstrances from bishops (particularly Christophe de Beaumont, the Archbishop of Paris) and the Dévot party at Louis XV's court.

Foreseeing the disastrous results of the alliance with Austria, he was drawn to oppose more decidedly the schemes of Madame de Pompadour, whose personal ill-will he had gained.