NECKER, JACQUES

born Sept. 30, 1732, Geneva died April 9, 1804, Coppet, Switz. Swiss banker and director general of finance (177181, 178889, 178990) under Louis XVI of France. He was overpraised in his lifetime for his somewhat dubious skill with public finances and unduly depreciated by historians for his alleged vacillation and lack of statesmanship in the opening phases of the French Revolution. Additional reading Robert D. Harris, Necker: Reform Statesman of the Ancien Rgime (1979), is a sympathetic reevaluation of Necker's first ministry (177681); his Necker and the Revolution of 1789 (1986) reassesses Necker's subsequent political career.