In the period leading up to the Estates General of 1789, France was in the grip of an unmanageable public debt. In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after failing to enact reforms. The next year, Jacques Necker, a foreigner, was appointed Controller-General of Finances. He could not be made an official minister because he was a Protestant. Drastic inflation and widespread food scarcity helped cause a huge famine in the winter of 1788–89. This led to widespread popular discontent and produced a group of Third Estate representatives (612 exactly) pressing a comparatively radical set of reforms, much of it in alignment with the goals of Finance Minister Jacques Necker, but very much against the wishes of Louis XVI's court and many of the hereditary nobles forming his Second Estate allies (at least allies against taking more taxes upon themselves and keeping the unequal taxation on the commoners).