CALONNE, CHARLES ALEXANDRE DE (1734 1802), French statesman, was born at Douai on Jan. 20, 1734. He became in succession advocate to the general council of Artois, procureur to the parlement of Douai, master of requests, then in tendant of Metz (1768) and of Lille (1774)• Calonne assumed of fice as controller-general of finance on Nov. 3, 1783. He found "300 millions to pay and neither money nor credit." He attempted to carry on the government by means of loans and thus made a position which was already serious practically hopeless. The parlement protested against registering the edicts for raising the loans, but in vain. In October 1785 he recoined the gold coinage, and he developed the caisse d'escompte. When it became impos sible to raise any more loans Calonne proposed to the king the suppression of internal customs, duties, and the taxation of the property of nobles and clergy. Turgot and Necker had attempted these reforms, and Calonne attributed their failure to the malevo lent criticism of the parlements. An assembly of "Notables" was called together in January 1787. Before it he exposed the deficit in the treasury, and proposed the establishment of a subvention territoriale, which should be levied on all property without dis tinction. This suppression of privileges was badly received by the privileged notables. Calonne, angered, printed his reports and so alienated the court. Louis XVI. dismissed him on April 8, 1787, and exiled him to Lorraine; from there he went to England. In 1789, when the states-general were about to assemble, he crossed over to Flanders in the hope of being allowed to offer himself for election, but he was sternly forbidden to enter France. He then joined the émigré party at Coblenz. His Etat de la France a present et a venir, a violent criticism of the financial measures of Necker, was published in London in 1790. He was allowed to return to France in 1802, and died in Paris on Oct. 3o of that year.
See Ch. Gomel, Les Causes financieres de la Revolution (1893) ; R. Stourm, Les Finances de l'ancien regime et de la Revolution (i885) ; Susane, La Tactique financiere de Colonne, with bibliography (1902) .