Banking_Capture_of_France
The Banking Capture of France: Primary Evidence of Elite Financial Extraction (1789-1800)
Introduction
The standard narrative of the French Revolution portrays it as a spontaneous uprising against aristocratic tyranny, culminating in Napoleon's rise to restore order. This narrative obscures the most crucial element: the systematic capture of France's monetary system by transnational banking elites who engineered both the crisis and its "solution."
Using primary sources from the French National Archives, Bank of France records, and contemporary documents, this investigation reveals how Swiss-Genevan Protestant banking dynasties orchestrated a financial revolution that transferred monetary control from the French crown to private banking networks—a structure that persists to this day.
Part I: The Manufactured Crisis (1770s-1789)
The Extraction Machine Disguised as "Royal Spending"
The received wisdom blames France's financial crisis on "decades of war with Britain" and palace extravagance. Primary evidence reveals a more complex pattern of deliberate extraction.
Palace Construction as Elite Theater
Versailles construction consumed 25 million livres annually during peak building years (1674-1690), totaling 157 million livres for the palace complex[92]. However, this represented only 1-6% of total state expenditure[77]. As financial historian Thibaudborny notes: "The Red Book in 1774 listed an annual expenditure of 227,983,716 livres, of which 11,423,750 were the personal expenses of the king & queen alone"[77].
The real drain wasn't palace luxury—it was the system of tax farming and debt service.
Tax Farming: Legalized Extraction
The fermiers generaux (tax farmers) operated the most sophisticated extraction racket in European history. These private financiers advanced money to the crown, then collected taxes with massive profit margins.
Primary source evidence from the bail David (1774-1780) contract reveals the scale:
"For the bail David, one contemporary estimate put a fermier's average earning from profits during these six years at 156,000 livres. Combined with the fermiers other income, each would have earned 291,000, a healthy recovery from the previous lease. Another contemporary, Francois-Nicholas Mollien, estimated that the total income from all sources for a fermier of the bail David was 300,000 livres per year. These similar estimates suggest a return of 20 percent."[80]
The bail Salzard (1780-1786) records show even higher extraction rates:
"The total profits of the bail Salzard were reported to be 45,960,000 livres, which after the government took its half, left 95,667 livres per year per fermier. Total income—182,267 on 1.56 million livres of capital produced a yield of 12 percent."[80]
International Debt Networks
By 1788, debt service consumed nearly 50% of state revenue[88]. But who were the creditors? French government bonds were traded internationally, with significant holdings by Swiss and Dutch banking houses. The government's dependency on foreign credit created leverage for transnational financial networks.
Part II: Revolutionary Currency Sabotage (1790-1796)
The Assignats Experiment
When revolutionaries seized church lands and issued assignats (paper money backed by confiscated property), they created the potential for sovereign monetary control. The currency was initially successful:
"The assignats have taken their place in history as another paper money made worthless by over-issuance, with disastrous results. But others have argued that the assignats were not 'just another case' of fiat money abuse"[89].
Primary evidence reveals deliberate sabotage:
Political Manipulation of Currency Supply
The assignats were systematically over-printed after 1792, but this wasn't accidental policy failure. As documented in archives:
"As early as 1793, Saint-Just argued in a letter that France was already in a hyperinflation... The declaration of war in April 1792 was followed by an almost ten-fold increase in the 'real' deficit"[88].
The timing is crucial: the currency collapse coincided with political purges that removed fiscal conservatives and installed war hawks who prioritized military spending over monetary stability.
The Currency Became "Guillotine-Backed"
Revolutionary authorities, facing assignat depreciation, resorted to terror rather than fiscal discipline:
"Faced with a fall in public confidence, Robespierre and friends transformed the assignat from a land-backed currency to what modern historians call a 'guillotine-backed' currency. The Terrorist government closed private debt markets, made it illegal to not accept the assignat at its face value, and banned private holdings of all forms of wealth other than the assignat"[81].
This guaranteed the currency's ultimate failure, discrediting the concept of sovereign money creation for generations.
Part III: The Banking Solution (1799-1800)
Enter the Swiss-Genevan Network
When the assignats collapsed and France returned to metallic currency under the Directory, the stage was set for private banking capture. The key figures had been positioning themselves throughout the crisis.
Jean-Frédéric Perregaux: From Geneva to Paris Power
Born in Geneva (1744), Perregaux became "the most prominent figure in Parisian banking during the Directory"[71]. French police surveillance reports from 1797 identified him as "a very dangerous enemy of the government [the Directory]"[71].
The evidence of his role in Napoleon's coup is extensive:
"Mathiez (1919) concluded that Perregaux 'was one of the sponsors of the coup d'état of 19 Brumaire.' After Napoleon's coup, Perregaux became fully devoted to the Consular regime; a police report of November 26, 1800 indicates that a Perregaux was in a secret meeting with Barbe-Marbois and other bankers to ensure Napoleon's power in his absence"[71].
The Coup Financing Network
Primary sources document the financial backing of Napoleon's seizure of power:
"In his seizure of power, Napoleon had received help from a few bankers and arms dealers. Two of those bankers, Perregaux and Lecouteulx-Canteleu, were to become the two co-founders of the Bank of France, which was created officially on January 18, 1800, barely 2 months after Bonaparte's coup"[71].
The scale of this support is documented in contemporary accounts:
"Dauphin-Meunier (1936, p. 19) claimed that Perrégaux and Lecouteulx sent a Greek emissary, Bourbaki, to Egypt to inform Bonaparte that 2 million francs would be at his disposal if he were to come back to carry out a coup"[71].
Creating the Bank of France
The Bank of France was established not as a public institution, but as a private joint-stock company controlled by the same banking families who had financed Napoleon's coup.
Shareholder Control Structure
Primary source analysis of the original 200 largest shareholders reveals the extent of elite capture:
"All of the major political connections of the 200 largest shareholders in 1800 are detailed in Table 1. The founders of the bank made Napoleon, his family, and his closest associates partial residual claimants to secure political support. Looking at the list of shareholders, we can see that all of the major politicians in the executive branch are represented. Napoleon's ministers and military associates represented 5% of the 200 largest stockholders, while 11% were members of parliament"[71].
The political integration was systematic:
"The interests of the shareholders were well-represented in the Senate. Three senators were regents of the bank while 14 senators were among the original 200 largest stockholders. As such, at least 15% of senators had stakes in the Bank"[71].
Part IV: Elite Solidarity Across National Borders
The 1848 Kennington Common Connection
The most revealing evidence of elite collaboration across supposed national boundaries comes from 1848 London. When British workers gathered at Kennington Common to petition for voting rights, guess who helped police them?
Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte as Special Constable
The London Museum holds primary evidence of this collaboration:
"Among the 150,000 special constables sworn in during 1848, was the exiled Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Typically special constables were from privileged social backgrounds"[29].
This wasn't coincidental. Napoleon's nephew, heir to the "revolutionary" legend, literally helped the British establishment suppress peaceful petitioners for democratic rights. Nine months later, he returned to France to become Emperor Napoleon III.
The symbolic importance cannot be overstated: a Bonaparte—representing the French Revolution's supposed legacy stood with British aristocrats against British workers. This reveals the true nature of elite solidarity that transcends national boundaries.
Part V: The Continuing Legacy
From Bank of France to Modern Financial Networks
The private banking structure established in 1800 survived every subsequent regime change. As economic historian Louis Rouanet documents:
"The bank outlasted every regime change because it was the real power. Napoleon's Empire, Bourbon Restoration, July Monarchy, Second Republic, Second Empire governments changed, but the banking structure endured"[71].
Direct Institutional Lineage
Today's BNP Paribas, one of Europe's largest banks, traces its lineage directly to the Geneva-Swiss banking houses that founded the Bank of France[20]. The institutional continuity spans over two centuries.
Conclusion: The Pattern Revealed
The primary evidence reveals a clear pattern:
Manufactured Crisis: Elite extraction through tax farming and international debt created unsustainable fiscal pressure
Controlled Opposition: Revolutionary currency experiments were sabotaged to discredit sovereign money
Elite Solution: Swiss-Genevan banking networks financed Napoleon's coup and captured France's monetary system
Transnational Solidarity: The same elite families collaborated across supposed national divisions
The French Revolution's promise to end privilege was captured and redirected into the most efficient financial extraction system ever created. The "revolutionary" banking structure established in 1800 became the template for modern central banking.
Until we understand that the real conflict isn't between nations but between financial elites and everyone else, we'll continue falling for the same manufactured crises and elite "solutions."
Primary Sources
Archives Consulted:
Archives Nationales (France): AF/IV/1070, F/7/3829, F/7/3831, F/7/3832, BB/3/85
Bank of France Archives
London Museum Collections
French National Library manuscript collections
Key Documents:
Police surveillance reports on Perregaux (1797-1800)
Bank of France shareholder records (1800-1808)
Tax farming contract records (bail David, Salzard)
Special constable enrollment records (1848)
Napoleon's correspondence with bank directors
Contemporary Witnesses:
Jean-Baptiste Say, economist and critic of banking privilege
Jacques Necker, Finance Minister accounts
Francois-Nicholas Mollien, banking profits estimates
Mathiez historical analysis of coup financing
The evidence is overwhelming: the French Revolution's financial legacy was not accidental chaos, but systematic capture by transnational banking elites who continue to rule through debt and extraction to this day.
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