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d'Argout Antoine Maurice Appolinaire
(1782—1858)
Atoine Maurice Apollinaire, Comte d'Argout was a French statesman, minister and governor of the Bank of France.
He started very modestly in the Administration, in twenty years, as simple expeditionary. Undoubtedly thanks to powerful supports, he benefited from a very quick progress: he was successively named ticket collector of indirect taxes in Antwerp (1806), listener in the Council of State (1810), inspector of indirect taxes (1811), then from 1812 till 1814 he exercised functions of managing director of the navigation of the Rhine. Rallied in Bourbons, he was named master of requests in extraordinary service on August 23rd, 1814. During Hundred Days he recovered in Napoleon's service which named him prefect of Basses-Pyrenees. After Waterloo, he was named prefect of Gard in Nîmes by the king Bourbon. Named State adviser in extraordinary service in 1817, he passed to ordinary service in January, 1819. Decazez, whose friend he had become, made him name peer of France by Louis XVIII (March 9th, 1819). In the Palace of Luxembourg, he always voted with moderate right. In 1828 he supported the Martignac ministry, but d’Argout joined the July monarchy easily.
He was named Peer of France on 5 March 1819 by the Duke Decazes, and voted with the moderate right. During the July Revolution of 1830, he tried to obtain from Charles X the withdrawal of the July Ordinances which had sparked the riots. A loyal supporter to the Bourbon Restoration, the Comte d'Argout accommodated himself of the new, July Monarchy, which corresponded to his moderate opinions. He was named Minister in Jacques Laffitte's government, succeeding to General Sebastiani. In April 1832, he contracted the cholera but survived to it.
After several other ministerial functions, he was nominated governor of the Bank of France in 1834 and retained his functions until 9 June 1857, despite the institutional changes (1848 Revolutions leading to the establishment of the Second Republic and then the 1851 coup of Bonaparte).
San-Marino, 2008, Count d'Argout
