In 1847, as banker to an association of producer cooperatives, he made it clear that the members would be expected to compete with each other.

[8] After the French Revolution of 1848, on 24 February Goudchaux was made Finance Minister in the cabinet of Dupont de l'Eure.

[10][a] However, he was known to be in favor of law and order and skilled in finance, so was expected to reassure business interests.

He took emergency measures to resume the collection of taxes, which had been disrupted by the revolution, while promising to arrange for more equitable methods of taxation as soon as possible.

He made a major speech in which he proposed lower indirect taxes, free education to workers and limited subsidies to the National Workshops which had been created to provide temporary employment.

On 22 July 1848 Goudchaux presented a statement of the financial situation to the Assembly in which he said there would be a deficit of 209 million for that year.

[1] Goudchaux continued to propose measures to manage finances and participated in constitutional debates.

Throughout his ministry he was hounded by the representative Creton to provide full details of all financial dealings of the provisional government, where Goudchaux had been Minister of Finance for a few days.

When the assembly voted in favor on 24 October 1848, Goudchaux immediately resigned on the grounds that this implied he was not trusted.

[14] Goudchaux continued to support the government until it resigned on 10 December 1848 after the election of Louis Napoleon as President of the Republic.