CALONNE, Charles-Alexandre.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Lettre adressée au roi, le 9 Février 1789. True first edition of this widely read analysis of the three estates, published on the eve of the French Revolution. This copy has an apposite association: it comes from the library of Thomas Coutts, who knew Calonne and helped co-ordinate Britain's financial response to the revolution. Charles-Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802), one of Louis XVI's final finance ministers, was at the centre of the crisis that led to the revolution. His attempts to re-organize the kingdom's financial administration led to his dismissal in 1787 and his rapid withdrawal to England, where he issued a series of pamphlets defending his record.The Lettre, published several months before the final convening of the Estates General, presents a tempered argument in favour of continued privilege, contending that the nobility and the clergy should form a dominant upper chamber in the Estates, while advocating some degree of equality in taxation. Robert Darnton observes that "it circulated widely and was taken seriously as a challenge to the prevailing arguments in favour of the Third Estate" (p. 543). This copy bears the engraved bookplate of the banker Thomas Coutts (1735-1822), a senior partner and guiding light in the eponymous banking house. Although "the full story of Thomas Coutts and the French Revolution will never be known, since the discreet banker has left few records of his activities at this time", Coutts Bank used the Revolution to establish its int

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