The names that make it into the history books are often known for their courage, intelligence, or ingenuity. They might push society toward a different political, social, or economic system. Big changes go down in the history books. Patience and moderation don’t always. Jacques Necker, the 18th-century Swiss banker turned French economic advisor, was decidedly moderate. “He never ran after systematic novelties,” Aurelian Craiutu of Indiana University, Bloomington explains. “He tried to strike a balance between reverence for the past and necessary reforms, and it is here I would say that the core of his moderation lies: Necker was a defender of monarchy, but he was not a defender of absolute monarchy. He understood the importance of constitutional monarchy.” In this second episode, Craiutu, the editor of Necker’s On Executive Power in Great States, discusses the value of Necker’s moderate beliefs, and his seemingly radical decision to make the French budget public for the first time in history. Sponsored by: Liberty Fund