faced collapse; this potential financial disaster was averted on 27 January 1806, when Ouvrard agreed to guarantee loans against the gold from the Spanish South America colonies. Ouvrard then entered a period of financial difficulties. He could not raise the acquisition price of the Château du Raincy. In 1809, he was imprisoned in Sainte-Pélagie for unpaid debt and released three months later. Believing that only peace could bring maritime economic growth, he tried to negotiate a secret peace with England with the support of Louis Bonaparte and Joseph Fouché, which earned him three years in prison. Glory and ruin (1815–1846) At the end of June 1815, at the beginning of the Restoration, Ouvrard acquired (under the name of his brother-in-law, G.J. Tébaud) the pavilion of Jonchère located at Bougival, known later as "Château de la Jonchère". He made many improvements to both the original building and its surroundings. In 1816, he acquired the Château de la Chaussée, not far from the pavilion of Jonchère. Ouvrard played a large role in the economic recovery of France after the fall of the Empire. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 effectively forced France to pay 700 million francs to foreign powers, or 150 million per annum, to which had to be added the maintenance of 150,000 soldiers of the Allied armies that had occupied France for five years. In 1816, crops collapsed and the coffers of the kingdom were empty. The payments were suspended. The Duc de Richelieu, Prime Minister of Louis XVIII, found himself in front of the Chamber of Deputies (the famous Chambre introuvable) but found its quarrels and divisions made his task impossible. On the advice of Ouvrard, Richelieu created a 100 million pension that filled the coffers of the state. The payments were made and the threat that hung over France was lifted. With this payment, the Prime Minister put forward the departure of foreign troops expected in 1820. The French territory was released in 1818, after the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. The Duc de Richelieu visited Ouvrard's property and canceled its debt to the Treasury. Proof of the prestige which Ouvrard enjoyed at the time can be seen from the fact that both Louis XVIII and the man who would become Charles X attended the wedding of Ouvrard's daughter Elisabeth to General de Rochechouart (a nephew of Richlieu) on 5 January 1822. The following year, the purveyor financed the