A banker's son, he was Minister of Finance of the Second Republic before becoming one of the pillars of the Second Empire, Minister of State from 1852 to 1860. In that same year 1852, he founded the Crédit mobilier with the Pereire brothers. A liberal economist, he opposed income tax all his life.
The story
Born in Paris on 17 November 1800, the second son of the banker Beer Léon Fould, who had come from Lorraine, Achille Fould worked in his father's bank before getting himself elected to parliament.
Finance Minister under the Second Republic, he rallied to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte and became one of the pillars of the regime that followed: Minister of State from 1852 to 1860, then Finance Minister once more.
In 1852 he co-founded, with the Pereire brothers, the Crédit mobilier, the investment bank that would finance the railways and the great public works of the Second Empire.
Liberal in economics, he kept the state's spending tight and opposed the income tax to the last. Joseph Caillaux, who would carry it fifty years later, also lies at Père-Lachaise, in Division 54.
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1856, he died at Laloubère, near Tarbes, on 5 October 1867, and rests in Division 4, avenue Principale, first row, under a stone bearing three words: “Famille Achille FOULD”.
The grave
A simple tomb, almost anonymous given its neighbours: the inscription is reduced to “Famille Achille FOULD”. Neither the two Ministries of Finance, nor the eight years as Minister of State, nor the Crédit mobilier, nor the Grand Cross of 1856. The man who financed a share of the Second Empire rests a few metres from Rossini and Haussmann, beneath the most discreet stone in the first row.
On site, do not miss
A stone of three words — “Famille Achille FOULD” — in the middle of the avenue Principale, the busiest in the cemetery. Rossini, Musset and Haussmann are less than twenty metres away.
Visitors' questions
Where is Achille Fould's grave?
In Division 4, avenue Principale, first row, beneath a plain stone: “Famille Achille FOULD”. It is one of the cemetery's richest Divisions — Rossini, Musset and Haussmann rest a few metres away.
Georges Eugène HaussmannWhat part did Achille Fould play under the Second Empire?
That of the regime's financier: Minister of Finance, then Minister of State from 1852 to 1860. That same year he co-founded the Crédit Mobilier with the Pereire brothers, the investment bank that funded the railways and the great public works.
Gustave DoréWas Fould in favour of income tax?
No, he fought it all his life, a liberal set against the Saint-Simonians. Progressive income tax was adopted only in 1914, carried through by Joseph Caillaux — who rests in Division 54 of the same cemetery.
Joseph CaillauxWhere did the Fould family come from?
From banking: his father, Léon Beer Fould, was a Jewish banker who had turned Protestant. Achille was his second son. Finance took the family to the ministry, and the ministry to the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1856.
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