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Joseph Caillaux Biography

Joseph Caillaux

(Joseph Marie Auguste Caillaux; Le Mans, 1863-Mamers, 1944) French politician.He became Prime Minister (between June 1911 and January 1912) and several times Minister of Finance of his country, a position from which he introduced the proportional system of Income Tax.Initially conservative, he gradually evolved towards more leftist and progressive positions, and joined Aristide Briand's Radical Socialist Party, which he came to chair.During the First World War, Joseph Caillaux maintained a series of contacts with high German authorities in order to find a dialogue path that would end the conflict, which served him so that once the war was over, he was accused of high treason for collaborationist.

Joseph Caillaux

As soon as he finished his law studies, Joseph Caillaux entered the French administration in 1888 as a tax inspector, since he combined with that of professor in the Free School of Political Sciences.After a first failure in his attempt to enter a political career, in 1898 he was elected deputy representing the department of Sarthe.Thanks to his excellent reputation as a prosecutor, Caillaux was appointed, the following year, Minister of Finance under the government chaired by Walderk-Rousseau, a position he held until 1902.

In those three years, Caillaux carried out a series of reforms and restructuring: he reorganized the tax regime of the colony of Algeria, profoundly reformed the tariffs on alcoholic beverages, regulated inheritance and the tax regime on sugars, etc.In 1902, Caillaux was re-elected deputy for the same department until 1906, the date on which the new French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau, called him back to occupy the Ministry of Finance, which he directed until the year 1909.A year later, Caillaux was again elected deputy for the department of Mamers.After six months as Minister of Finance of the government chaired by Ernest Monis, he was elected Prime Minister when he fell, on June 27, 1911.

The new Caillaux Government could not have started worse, as serious problems arose conflicts with Germany in Morocco (Agadir crisis).Joseph Caillaux adopted a conciliatory and pacifist stance in the conflict with Germany, to which he offered extensive territories of the French Congo in exchange for French freedom of action in Morocco and industrial and commercial cooperation between both nations.The French political class, enemy of Caillaux, took advantage of the circumstance to attack him viciously, accusing him of being a traitor to the homeland and of being condescending towards a country enemy of France such as Germany at that time.

Finally, the Senate formed a commission of inquiry to clarify the treaty signed with the German country that, ultimately, ended the brief Caillaux Government at the end of January 1912, and was replaced by a new Government chaired by Raymond Poincaré, who, in the following elections held on January 1 of the following year, was elected President of the Republic.After a brief period of government by Aristide Briand, Barton was entrusted with a new government, who was replaced in turn by Gaston Doumergue, who once again entrusted the Ministry of Finance to Caillaux.It was in this period at the forefront of French finance when Joseph Caillaux approved the first Income Tax Law.

During the Doumergue government there was a banking scandal carried out by an obscure character named Rochette.The event was used by the editor of the prestigious newspaper Le Fígaro , Gastón Calmette, one of Caillaux's most stubborn enemies, to accuse the Minister of Finance of using his influence so that Rochette could evade the action of Justice.Calmette ran from his newspaper a very harsh smear campaign against Caillaux with the purpose of overthrowing him, in which he threatened to publish a series of love letters between Caillaux and his wife when they were both still dating.

The scandal reached Parliament, where, after a secret vote, Caillaux was declared innocent of the charge of cover-up and abuse of office.However, the reputation Caillaux's policy was seriously damaged.Madame Caillaux, to avoid the scandal of the possible publication of the love correspondence, decided to take justice on her own and fatally shot the editor of Le Fígaro .The episode ended up removing Caillaux from the Government, who resigned.

During the First World War Caillaux distinguished himself by supporting a peace negotiated with Germany, which earned him, along with Louis Malvy (Minister of Interior of the Government of Doumergue), being accused of high treason and collaboration with the enemy.He was arrested on January 14, 1918.After two years of long waiting, he was tried in February 1920 by a military court that found him guilty of all the charges against him.Sentenced to three years in prison, his sentence was finally commuted to exile and ten years of political disqualification in all territories belonging to France.

After a general political amnesty, granted on July 14, In 1924, Caillaux regained all the political rights of which he was temporarily deprived.The Radical Socialist Party came to power by a large majority from the hand of Paul Painlevé, who recalled Caillaux as Minister of Finance in April 1925.In January 1927, Caillaux was elected senator and head of the Finance Commission of said chamber, where he stood out as one of its most important members.On July 1, 1935, Caillaux briefly returned to the Ministry of Finance, from which he quickly left, unable to cope with a severe economic depression that shook France, in addition to initiating a political shift towards more centrist positions.

Joseph Caillaux was in favor of Édouard Daladier's attempts to negotiate with Adolf Hitler to avoid the imminent outbreak of World War II (1939-1945).When France fell under German rule in 1940, Caillaux, resisting continuous attempts by the collaborationist Vichy regime to attract him to their cause, withdrew permanently from active politics.

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