[a. F. financier, f. finance: see FINANCE sb.1]
† 1. Fr. Hist. An administrator, collector, or farmer of taxes before the Revolution. Obs.
1678. in Phillips, App.
1741. Hume, Ess., xv. 185. The only Gainers by it [the oppressive fiscal system in France] are the Finançiers, a Race of Men despised and hated by the Nobility and the whole Kingdom.
1755. Johnson, Dict., Financier [in italics as a foreign word], one who collects and farms the public revenue.
2. One who is concerned with finance; one who is skilled in levying and managing public money.
1618. Bacon, Lett. to Jas. I., 2 Jan. Wks. (Spedding), XIII. 453. I therefore, whom only love and duty to your majesty, and your royal line, hath made a financier, do intend to present unto your majesty a perfect book of your estate.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 136.
| Affirmatives, in second Figure, | |
| Nothing conclude in Logicks Leagure, | |
| Which any constant Man believes, | |
| So we may prove Financiers Thieves. |
1770. Ld. Malmesbury, Diaries & Corr. (1844), I. 52. His [Charles III. of Spain] own subjects are starving, and his financiers are at their wits’ ends.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 336. The objects of a financier are, then, to secure an ample revenue; to impose it with judgment and equality; to employ it œconomically; and when necessity obliges him to make use of credit, to secure its foundations in that instance, and for ever, by the clearness and candour of his proceedings, the exactness of his calculations, and the solidity of his funds.
1824. Byron, Juan, XVI. xcviii.
| Most orators, but very few financiers, | |
| Though all Exchequer Chancellors endeavour | |
| Of late years to dispense with Cocker’s rigors, | |
| And grow quite figurative with their figures. |
1874. Green, Short Hist., ix. § 10. 710. Walpole was not only the first English Peace Minister; he was the first English Minister who was a great financier, and who regarded the development of national wealth and the adjustment of national burdens as the business of a statesman.
3. A capitalist concerned in financial operations.
1867. Pall Mall G., 26 July, 7. A financial combination of London financiers and financial houses.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., xxxviii. Forty years ago the great financiers had not that commanding, not to say predominant, position in society which they possess at present.
Hence Financiery, the practice or occupation of a financier.
1881. Blackw. Mag., CXXIX. Feb., 176/2. Spendthrift or speculative customers who had an instinctive flaire for accommodating financiery, began to find him out.
