- Jean-Pierre-Louis de Luchet (1740-1792), also known as the Marquis de La Roche du Maine, or Marquis de Luchet, was a French journalist, essayist, and theatre manager. First edition of this work on the Paris brothers, based on an autobiographical manuscript composed in 1729 by Claude Paris La Montagne, one of the 4 Paris brothers, and purporting to show how a kingdom can, in five years, pass from stagnation to a flourishing economy. From the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) to Waterloo (1815), France was the dominant power in Europe. Public finance to maintain its power, especially against Britain, brougt much turmoil, experimentation and innovation. Successive French governements were aware of the contest they were engaged. The last wars of Louis XIV required extraordinary efforts to raise the necessary resources. In the 10 years after the death of Louis XV in 1715, many solutions were sought, debated and tried. John Law made a brief French career. The Paris brothers, famous, but poorly known, were children of Jean Paris (1643-97) and Justine Trenannay La Montaigne (d. 1722). From their 17 children, four rose to prominence, by nicknames : Antoine Paris the elder (1668-1733), Claude Paris La Montagne (1670-1744), Joseph Paris Duverney (1684-1770) and Jean Paris de Monmartel (1690-1766). The family's entry into finance came with the Nine Years War (1688-97), providing the King's army with food. At the end of the war Antoine and Claude went to Paris to collect some debts and they were introduced to officials in the finance ministery. When the War on Spanish succession started in 1701, Antoine and Claude were in to the business again of providing food for the armies in the Low Counties and Germany, and training their younger brothers Joseph and Jean. At the end of the war, Antoine had become receiver general of direct taxes in Dauphiné, Claude was a secrétaire du Roy (honorary, but prestigious), and Jean was general treasurer of the Ponts et Chausées. They had become part of the financier establishment. In the first phase of their career (1716-19), separated by the interlude of John Law's system, the Paris brothers completely reformed the collection of direct taxes, introducing double-entry bookkeeping and close monetoring of tax collection. They oversaw the Visa of 1716, which reduced and consolidated the floating debt inherited from the war, and began te reform of the collection of indirect taxes. During the second phase (1721-26), their influence reached its highest point. They liquidated the enormous debt left over from John Law's System in the Visa of 1721-23, contimued their accounting reforms, and implemented the financial policies of the Duke of Bourbon (1723-26). The fall from power of the latter precipitated their exile in 1726. Francois A. Velde. French public finance between 1685 and 1726. In : Fausto Piola Caselli (ed.). Government debts and financial markets in Europe. p. 135-137; Kress 4861; Einaudi 3539.