Author Archive
I was a statesman and financier born in Geneva. Initially a banker’s clerk, I moved to Paris in the 1760s. I was made director of the French treasury and director-general of finances. I engaged in heavy borrowing while concealing a big state deficit. I was dismissed, then recalled, and dismissed again, which provoked events which…
Albanian statesman. Born Ahmed Bey Zogu, he formed a republican government in Albania, acting as prime minister from 1922-1924 and then president from 1925-1928. He remarkably proclaimed himself king in 1928 but was forced to flee after the Italian invasion in 1939 and abdicated in 1946. Errol Flynn complained that the exiled king, who was…
