11 - TERRAY (Joseph-Marie). Autograph letter signed in his capacity as Controller General of Finances, addressed to the Director of Public Works, Jean-Charles-Philibert Trudaine de Montigny. Paris, November 24, 1770. 2 pp. in-4.

TERRAY (Joseph-Marie). Autograph letter signed in his capacity as Controller General of Finances, addressed to the Director of Public Works, Jean-Charles-Philibert Trudaine de Montigny. Paris, November 24, 1770. 2 pp. in-4. THE PHYSIOCRATIC QUESTION OF FISCAL DECLASSIFICATION IN THE KINGDOM. Already put forward by Trudaine de Montigny’s father, Daniel-Charles, who served as a member of the Royal Council of Finance, this principle aimed, in particular, through a single customs tariff across provinces, to create a national market, facilitate the free flow of goods, and prevent speculation—with the resulting tax losses to be offset in the long run by a boom in trade and the enrichment of the kingdom. Joseph-Marie Terray refuses, for the time being, to consider a loss that would not be immediately offset. “If, Sir, the payment of funds earmarked for bridges and roads is subject to some delays, it is nonetheless assured, and I assure you that I am not neglecting to urge that their collection be expedited. I have read the draft letter you intend to write to the Bishop of Rennes [who presided over the Assembly of the Estates of Brittany] REGARDING THE UNIFIED TARIFF. I WOULD POINT OUT TO YOU THAT THE KING’S FINANCES ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO WITHSTAND ANY REDUCTION IN REVENUE, and that I cannot agree to any arrangement that would not make up on one side what would be lost on the other. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT IT IS VERY DANGEROUS, GIVEN THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN BRITTANY, TO INTRODUCE ANOTHER MATTER FOR DEBATE IN THE ESTATES [open opposition had pitted the royal authority against the Parliament of Rennes since 1764, and had spread to the Parliaments and the high nobility throughout the kingdom]. The work is not far enough along to warn them; doing so might well cause it to fail. When it is ready, well-planned, and fully approved, we may have to act without consulting the opponents and those who have neither the right nor the power to prevent it. I have the honor of returning the letter intended for the Bishop of Rennes, and unless you advise otherwise, I believe you should not send it to him. I am very eager to see you and to assure you in person of the sincere devotion with which I remain, Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant...” FINANCE CONTROLLER FROM 1769 TO 1774, ABBÉ TERRAY (1715–1778) also served as Director of the King’s Buildings and, for a time, as acting Minister of the Navy. He pursued a firm and effective fiscal policy, but having dared to reduce pensions and increase taxes on landholdings, he incurred the hostility of both the high nobility and the upper middle class, and became the target of a vicious smear campaign that wrongly cemented his image for a long time as an ambitious, greedy, libertine, and despotic minister. PHYSIOCRAT AND FRIEND OF TURGOT, JEAN-CHARLES-PHILIBERT TRUDAINE DE MONTIGNY (1733–1777) served as Intendant of Finance and Director of Public Works, succeeding his father, Daniel-Charles Trudaine, in this position, with whom he had been collaborating since 1757. He was also a renowned chemist, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and financed the founding of the *Journal de physique*.