NECKER, JACQUES BARON DE, a distinguished fi nancier and statesman, was born at Geneva, in the year 1732. His father, Charles Frederic, was professor of civil law there, and became known to his contemporaries as the author of some treatises relating to jurisprudence, Intending to bring up his son for the mercantile life, he gave hint a suitable education, WhiCli WaS harJly com pleted, when the situation of clerk in a banking house at l'aris having offered itself, Jacques was sent away to occupy it, at the age of fifteen. The allurements of a capital could not divert the young man from steadily discharging his humble duties, and sedulously conse crating all his unoccupied time to increase his general knowledge, and remedy the defects of his scanty edu cation. Thellusson, his master, had observed this re gular conduct; but it did not strike him that, under an exterior somewhat shy and repulsive, Necker concealed any talents beyond the ordinary, though valuable quali ties of punctuality and discretion. An accident first re vealed the existence of higher powers, and laid the foundation of Necker's future greatness. It happened, one day, that the head clerk, who had to transact some important business at the Exchequer, was prevented from attending to it at the appointed hour, and the busi ness, in consequence, devolved upon Necker ; who, guiding. himself by the aspect of the case, managed the affair in a way contrary to his master's directions, but so as to secure for him a profit of 500,000 livres, beyond what could have 'oeen acquired otherwise. This occur rence naturally attracted notice ; and being followed on the part of Necker by the same prudent carefulness which had marked his previous conduct, it introduced him to the confidence, to the chief employment, and, finally, to the partnership, of his principal.
Necker was now on the high road to wealth. Thel lusson having died shortly after, he established a bank of his own, in which a brother, and some other mer chants, had shares : he speculated with the East India Company, with the English funds; was cautious, enter prising, successful; and in the course of fifteen years had amassed a princely fortune. But the possession of
a capital beyond that of the most opulent house in France (it amounted to six millions of livres), could not render the career ite was prosecuting so successfully, and the kind of distinction which he might acquire from it, in teresting enough to engage all his ardour, and limit all his views. He as.pired to reputation of a more exalted species; and his previous acquisitions in literature and science enabled hini to take an honourable modc of ob taining it. Political economy, begun under the auspices of Colbert, systematized and new-modelled by Dr. Ques nay, expounded by Turgot and a multitude of inferior men, was at that time eagerly studied in France; and Necker's profession co-operated with the bent of his ge nius to inspire him with a tastc for the fashionable sub ject. He had examined it maturely, not without dis senting in many essential points from the sect then pre valent, and since named Economists ; and in 1769, when the propriety of the East India Company's monopoly was keenly disputed, he published a book on the ques tion, wherein he endeavoured to defend that establish ment against the objections of Lacratelle and Alorellet. It is a strong proof of the author's ingenuity, that his work was popular, though it maintained so unpopular a side of the argument, and respected among men of letters, though it went counter to the fundamental prin ciple of Dr. Quesnay's system, which they almost uni versally patronised. The eloge of Colbert (read at the Academie Francaise in 1773), and a tract on the Corn Trade which followed it, tended greatly' to establish Necker's reputation as a political economist: and the consideration resulting from his immense fortune, toge ther with the esteem he enjoyed in the literary world, paved the way for his advancement to a station in the government, where such talents might be immediately applied to practice, and were now, more than ever, im periously called for.