FINANCE, the art of managing money matters, the person who professes this art being called a financier. Finances, in the plural, is often used for money itself, but still with a reference to the purpose to which it is to be applied, as where the finances of a country are said to have improved or fallen off. It is used in the United States as in England, rather in a political and economic sense than officially; but in France there have been, from time to time, comptrollers-general of finances, councils of finances, bureaus of finances, etc., and at the present time, Minister of Finances.