During the presidency of Louis Napoleon he was four times minister of finance, and took a leading part in the economic reforms then made in France. His strong conservative tendencies led him to oppose the doctrine of free trade, and disposed him to hail the coup d'état and the new empire. On 25 January 1852, in consequence of the decree confiscating the property of the Orléans family, he resigned the office of minister of finance, but was on the same day appointed senator, and soon after rejoined the government as minister of state and of the imperial household. In this capacity he directed the Paris exhibition of 1855. The events of November 1860 led once more to his resignation, but he was recalled to the ministry of finance in November of the following year, and retained office until the publication of the imperial letter of 19 January 1867, when Émile Ollivier became the chief adviser to the emperor. During his last tenure of office he had reduced the floating debt, which the Mexican War had considerably increased, by the negotiation of a loan of 300 million francs (1863).