Cornelis Theodorus Elout

Career Becoming a statesman In 1793 he was appointed Bailiff, Dijkgraaf and Upper Beach Guardian of Texel. After he had married Henriette Josina van Eybergen on 3 August, 1794, he was appointed Councilor in the Court of Holland and Zeeland, in which he served until 1802, when he was appointed Attorney-General at the National Court. (As such he prosecuted the member of the Staatsbewind Jacobus Spoors in a case of threats of violence against another prosecutor.) The case ended in an acquittal.

After his return to the Kingdom of Holland he was charged, together with Reuvens and Van Musschenbroek, with the preparation of a new criminal code. Shortly afterwards he was appointed member of the State Council and President of its Third Section. After the Annexation to the First French Empire in 1810, he was first appointed in a conseil pour les affaires de la Hollande to help with the transition, Elout accomplished his task in an excellent manner. He was the principal coordinator of the drafting of the so-called Regeringsreglement (a quasi-constitution for the colony). In the meantime the Commissioners had to deal with an insurrection in the Moluccas, that was suppressed by a punitive expedition commanded by Buyskes. The Commissioners also had to deal with chaos in the bureaucracy (the officials that had worked for the British had for the most part to be replaced by new personnel). They implemented the new system of taxation that had been designed under the former British lt.-governor-general Sir Stamford Raffles, known as the landrente; reformed the coinage; reformed the system of Residences, instituted by Daendels; reorganized the public finances and the judicial system; and reformed the cultivation of coffee. On the recommendation of Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt, the director of the department of Agriculture, the system of primary education was reformed, giving a foundation for the efforts in the 19th century to combat illiteracy in the colony. In all of this Elout was the prime mover

Ministerial career After having returned to the Netherlands in October, 1819, by way of England, he was showered with honors. Even before his return he had received the appointment for the province of Holland as a member of the House of Representatives of the States General. However, he declined this honor, wrote a report about his mission, and declined the pension of 6,000 guilders due to him. Appointed Minister of Finance on 1 May 1821, he promoted an improved system of trade and taxation. He began to improve the monetary system and to abolish and reduce the lotteries.

In 1824, after Falck's appointment as Ambassador to London, Elout exchanged the Department of Finance for that of Industry and Colonies. In 1825 that of the Navy was added. The establishment of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij on Elout 's proposal was to "provide for what private trade could not or cannot do, without, however, harming that trade." The situation in the Indies deteriorated due to the cost of the many military conflicts in the 1820s. The new Governor General Johannes van den Bosch, appointed on Elout's recommendation, drove through the introduction of the Cultuurstelsel to improve the public finances, against the will of Elout, who resigned in protest.

Minister of State

He retained the rank and title of Minister of State and was charged with a number of honorable commissions, among which the investigation of the Canada question, the arbitration of which had been entrusted to the King of the Netherlands by Great Britain and the United States.

He spent the last years of life alternately on his estate Voorlinden or in The Hague, where he died 3 May 1841.

He was Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, of which he had been appointed Commander when the order was established. He was also a member of the Society of Dutch Literature in Leiden and Director of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschappen in Haarlem.