The Peace of Paris, signed in February 1763, brought an end to the Seven Years War, but not to the trials of the French government. In addition to the humiliation of defeat and territorial loss, it was necessary to count the ruinous financial cost of the conflict. Despite this immense burden, the ministry was determined to avoid declaring a bankruptcy, which left little alternative but to maintain high rates of taxation. These uncomfortable fiscal realities were certain to have serious political repercussions because of the need to break wartime promises about the duration of taxation. Peace brought heightened expectations and both the parlements and the wider public expected the abolition of at least two of the three vingtièmes, plus many of the other extraordinary levies. When contrôleur général Bertin was unable to meet these hopes, his fiscal policies provoked a serious crisis with the Parlement of Paris. Rather than enter into a familiar cycle of complaints and protest, Bertin replied vigorously by persuading Louis XV to hold a lit de justice. Even the use of that authoritative ceremony failed to stem the flow of protests, and as Bertin sought to impose his policy elsewhere in the kingdom he was confronted by angry resistance from the provincial parlements. Predictably enough, Louis XV proved incapable of sustaining a minister whose policies had attracted the wrath of the judiciary, and in December 1763 Bertin resigned. His schemes were then abandoned and in a mark of public contrition the government appointed L'Averdy, a councillor in the Parlement of Paris, as the new contrôleur général of finances.