he generality of Rouen (January 1689). Affable, of
polished manners, modest and honest, Chamillart won the confidence of
Madame de Maintenon and pleased the king. In 1690 he was made intendant
of finances, and on the 5th of September 1699 the king appointed him
controller-general of finances, to which he added on the following 7th
of January the ministry of war. From the first Chamillart's position was
a difficult one. The deficit amounted to more than 53 million livres,
and the credit of the state was almost exhausted. He lacked the great
intelligence and energy necessary for the situation, and was unable to
moderate the king's warlike tastes, or to inaugurate economic reforms.
He could only employ the usual expedients of the time--the immoderate
sale of offices, the debasement of the coinage (five times in six
years), reduction of the rate of interest on state debts, and increased
taxation. He attempted to force into circulation a kind of paper money,
_billets de monnaie_, but with disastrous results owing to the state of
credit. He studied Vauban's project for the royal tithe and
Boisguillebert's proposition for the _taille_, but did not adopt them.
In October 1706 he showed the king that the debts immediately due
amounted to 288 millions, and that the deficit already foreseen for 1707
was 160 millions. In October 1707 he saw with consternation that the
revenue for 1708 was already entirely eaten up by anticipation, so that
neither money nor credit remained for 1708. In these conditions
Chamillart, who had often complained of the overwhelming burden he was
carrying, and who had already wished to retire in 1706, resigned his
office of controller-general. Public opinion attributed to him the ruin
of the country, though he had tried in 1700 to improve the condition of
commerce by the creation of a council of commerce. As secretary of state
for war he had to place in the field the army for the War of the Spanish
Succession, and to reorganize it three times, after the great defeats of
1704, 1706 and 1708. With an empty treasury he succeeded only in part,
and he frankly warned the king that the enemy would soon be able to
dictate the terms of peace. He was reproached with having secured the
command of the army which besieged Turin (1706) for his son-in-law, the
incapable duc de la Feuillade. Madame de Maintenon even became hostile
to him, and he abandoned his position on the 10th of June 1709, retiring
to his estates. He die