Based on previously unexploited archives, this article aims to question the exceptional features of Hoeufft’s career. Considering his trajectory in a commercial, geostrategic and political context, this article argues that Hoeufft’s career is the product of the continuity of the French networks of power ruling France in the first part of the seventeenth century, and of the specific role they entrusted to him. Jean Hoeufft was born in Liège in 1578 and died in Paris in 1651. He settled in Rouen in 1600 where he developed trade and ship-owner activities. Since the 1620s, he specialized in arms trade and emerged as one of the most important providers of the French armies. During the 1630s, Hoeufft became a banker and a diplomat. As a permanent representative of the United Provinces in France, he was the official intermediary between Paris and The Hague. This conversion was eased by his progressive integration into the “fisco-financier” system. After 1640, his considerable wealth led him to focusing his activities on bank loans and productive investments such as the draining of marshes.