born Oct. 24, 1767, Bayonne, France
died May 26, 1844, Maisons-sur-Seine
French banker and politician.
He became a partner in a Perregaux banking house in 1800 and head of the firm in 1804. As governor of the Bank of France (1814–19), he raised large sums of money for the provisional government in 1814 and for Louis XVIII during the Hundred Days . He saved Paris from a financial crisis in 1818. An early partisan of a constitutional monarchy under Louis-Philippe , he did much to secure Louis-Philippe's accession to the throne, and he briefly served as premier (1830–31) in the July Monarchy.
Jacques Laffitte, drawing by A. Devéria; in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Courtesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris