Auguste Dreyfus: Difference between revisions
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Two daughters and two sons were born of his second marriage: |
Two daughters and two sons were born of his second marriage: |
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* Emilie Dreyfus married the count, banker and politician [[Hervé de Lyrot]], and her sister married his brother René de Lyrot. |
* Emilie Dreyfus married the count, banker and politician [[Hervé de Lyrot]], and her sister married his brother René de Lyrot. |
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* Louis (1874-1965), who was successively authorized by decree of 12 August 1885 to call himself Dreyfus-Gonzalez de Andia, then in 1925 by [[Alfonso XIII of Spain]], to assume - contrary to the Spanish noble usage - the title of his mother, who died a year before, and finally, by decree of 26 July 1935, to remove Dreyfus from his name. |
* Louis (1874-1965), who was successively authorized by decree of 12 August 1885 to call himself Dreyfus-Gonzalez de Andia, then in 1925 by [[Alfonso XIII of Spain]], to assume - contrary to the Spanish noble usage - the title of his mother, who died a year before, and finally, by decree of 26 July 1935, to remove Dreyfus from his name.{{sfn|Conde de Premio Real}} |
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*[[Édouard Dreyfus Gonzalez]] (1876-1941), lawyer, Count |
*[[Édouard Dreyfus Gonzalez]] (1876-1941), lawyer, Count of Premio Real. He wrote songs under the name Jean Dora.{sfn|Conde de Premio Real}} |
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In 1907 the two brothers married the daughters of Archambaud de Talleyrand-Périgord and Marie de Gontaut-Biron, respectively Félicie (1878-1981) and Anne-Hélène (1877-1945). |
In 1907 the two brothers married the daughters of Archambaud de Talleyrand-Périgord and Marie de Gontaut-Biron, respectively Félicie (1878-1981) and Anne-Hélène (1877-1945). |
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|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EB5i7yoRk3UC&pg=PA54|accessdate=2013-06-20 |
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EB5i7yoRk3UC&pg=PA54|accessdate=2013-06-20 |
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|year=1985|publisher=Lawrence Clayton|isbn=978-0-915463-25-1}} |
|year=1985|publisher=Lawrence Clayton|isbn=978-0-915463-25-1}} |
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*{{cite web |ref={{harvid|Conde de Premio Real}} |url=http://condedepremioreal.homestead.com/Titulares.html |
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|title=Conde de Premio Real|accessdate=2013-06-21}} |
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*{{cite book|ref=harv |
*{{cite book|ref=harv |
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|last=Cushman|first=Gregory T.|title=Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History |
|last=Cushman|first=Gregory T.|title=Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History |
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Revision as of 17:13, 21 June 2013
Auguste Dreyfus | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 June 1827 Wissembourg, Bas-Rhin, France |
| Died | 25 May 1897 (aged 69) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Guano |
Auguste Dreyfus (28 June 1827 - 25 May 1897) was a French businessman who made his fortune by financing the Peruvian trade in guano[a]. Dreyfus joined a small textile trading firm set up by three of his elder brothers and moved to Lima, Peru to act as their local representative. He became involved in the guano trade, and in 1869 signed a major contract with the Peruvian government that gave him a monopoly over exports of Peruvian guano to Europe. With this he controlled the largest source of Peruvian national income.
The Peruvian government let Dreyfus act as their agent in managing their existing debt and floating new loans used for railway construction. The government ran into increasing financial difficulties. These were compounded by a war with Chile between 1879 and 1883 in which they lost their key guano-producing province. A lengthy series of lawsuits followed between the creditors whose loans were secured by guano deposits and the governments of Peru and Chile. The Dreyfus trading enterprise came to an end. He retired to France, where he owned a chateau in the country and a mansion in Paris that he filled with a major collection of art.
Early years
Auguste Dreyfus was born into a Jewish family in Wissembourg, Bas-Rhin, on June 28, 1827.[2] He was the tenth of twelve children of the merchant Edward Dreyfus (1788-1866 ) and his wife Sara Marx (1791-1865). He was the youngest of their seven boys.[3]
On 29 August 1852 Auguste's brothers Prospere, Jérome and Isidore started Dreyfus Frères & Cie.[4] This was a small company in Paris trading in commodities such as fabrics and dies In 1856 Auguste Dreyfus joined the company.[5] By 1859 Auguste Dreyfus, now residing in Peru, had become a minority partner.[4] Auguste began trading in guano and quickly became wealthy through careful attention to the fluctuations in the global demand for the commodity.[5]
Leon Dreyfus, who had moved to Peru and made influential connections, became a partner on 19 January 1866 and remained associated with Auguste until 1869.[4] After June 1869 his brothers let Auguste control the company.
Financier
Dreyfus contract
The government of Peru had been exploiting their guano reserves on a consignment system, in which the state paid contractors to extract, transport and sell it on a cost-plus basis. The resulting system was corrupt and inefficient. By 1868 Peru was had large and growing debts. In response to growing public criticism, the government chose a new approach. [6] On 5 July 1869 the government granted Dreyfus Frères the exclusive right to sell up to two million tons of guano in Europe, cancelling all consignment arrangements.[7] Dreyfus was to pay 50 soles[b] per ton for the guano, a considerably higher price than the government had been receiving up to then.[9]
Auguste Dreyfus was backed by the Société Générale of Paris.[10] The business was too large for him to handle alone, so on 6 July 1869 he formed, with the Société Générale and the international trading house Leiden, Premsel & cie., a syndicate capable of providing 60 million francs capital necessary to prime the pump while the partners provided, stored, processed and delivered the product. The Schroders bank of the City of London supported him and handled the issue of bonds from 1870 to 1872.
The royalty payments would start in the early 1870s as the other contracts expired.[7] In the meantime, Dreyfus would advance the government 2.4 million soles per year and 700,000 soles monthly for the first twenty months.[5] The contract also included clauses through which his company would assume government debts to former guano contractors and foreign bondholders, charging the government 5% interest on this debt until it was paid off.[5] The total debt was 21 million soles. The agreement was ratified on 17 August 1869.[7] The Minister of Finance, who arranged the deal, was Nicolás de Piérola.[9]
Additional loans
The income provided by the Dreyfus contract was absorbed in payments to an expanding civil service and armed forces.[11] Rather than reduce debts or invest in urgently needed schools or irrigation projects, Pierola used the income from the contract as collateral for additional loans, which President José Balta used for an ambitious plan to build railways in the mountainous Andes country.[9] Dreyfus arranged to float these loans in Europe, one in 1870 for ₤12 million of 6% bonds sold at 82.5% of face value, and a second in 1872 of 5% bonds sold at 77.5% of face value.[12] Peru had hoped to sell almost ₤37 million of the 1872 bonds, but investors were concerned about the country's ability to serve its soaring debts, and there were rumors that the guano supplies were running out.[7] Dreyfus and his associates bought most of the ₤22 million that was issued, paying just ₤13 million.[13] By 1872 almost all of the government's guano revenue was going to debt interest payments, and the deficit was running at 50%.[14]
The public saw no return from the railway projects, and in May 1872 elected Manuel Pardo as President, a popular former mayor of Lima. An attempted coup d'état before Pardo took power did not succeed.[9] Pardo inherited a financial crisis. The best quality gauno had been extracted, so costs were rising and revenues falling.[15] Pardo reduced the size of the army by three quarters and canceled two orders for battleships from Britain, but continued the railway construction program.[16] He allowed Dreyfus to continue with the last bond issue, which proved a failure. Only ₤8.3 million was raised, one quarter of what had been hoped. The money mainly went to paying Dreyfus and refinancing debts.[17]
Dreyfus now began suffering from the declining quality of the remaining guano and from competition with artificial fertilizer manfuctured in Germany. In November 1873 Dreyfus announced that he no longer had enough income to service Peru's foreign debt. The government responded by withdrawing Dreyfus's permit to ship guano, and stated that bondholders of the two loans had first claim on Peruvian guano, ahead of Dreyfus.[13] The government threatened to sue Dreyfus in Europe if he failed to meet his payments on the loans. An agreement was reaching in April 1874 under which Dreyfus could export another 850,000 tons of guano, the remainder of the 2 million tons agreed in the contract, and Dreyfus would continue to service the foreign debt until 1 July 1875. Dreyfus would also advance cash to the government based on the gross value of the guano extracted.[13]
Later operations
In 1875 the Dreyfus contract was terminated. A new contract was signed with the Peruvian Guano Company, formed by British investors, in exchange for serving the debt and making payments to the government. However, Dreyfus still had large stocks of unsold guano, and his competition with the new company caused prices to fall.[18] The Peruvian Guano Company led by the financier Raphael was not successful. It was handicapped by terms that favored Peru, and until 1879 was not allowed to sell at competitive prices. Dreyfus had large stocks of higher-quality guano, and continued to dominate the global market. The company's bondholders tried to sue Dreyfus for a share of his guano revenue, but did not succeed.[19]
In 1879 the War of the Pacific broke out between Chile and Peru. Peru was unprepared, and Chile quickly seized control of the main ports through which guano was exported. Chile took Tarapacá province, a key source of guano, and occupied Lima in early 1880.[19] By late 1879 the Peruvian government still owed Dreyfus £4 million, secured by the country's remaining reserves of guano.[20] In December 1879 President Prado left Peru and was replaced by Nicolás de Piérola. In January Piérola and Dreyfus agreed on a new contract under which the government recognized a debt to Dreyfus of 21 million soles, or ₤4 million, to be recovered by Dreyfus through further sales of guano. Dreyfus was to export only to markets that were not being served by the Peruvian Guano Company. The British protested against the agreement, but were not supported by the French.[21]
On 30 June 1880 a new agreement was made between Peru and Dreyfus to consolidate its debt. This included giving up control of its railways for twenty five years and paying Dreyfus £3,214,388. In parallel, however, the Chilean government reached an agreement with the bondholders of the Peruvian Guano Company giving them the right to export guano from the occupied territories.[22] On 9 February 1882 a new agreement was made with Chile in which that country would sell one million tons of guano from Tarapacá to the highest bidder, with half the profit going to creditors of Peru whose claims were secured by the guano, including Dreyfus. Chile probably made this concession to avoid intervention by the creditor governments.[23] The Treaty of Ancón, signed on 20 October 1883, ended the war. Chile gained control over Tarapacá.[24]
In the following period Dreyfus and the bondholders of the Peruvian Guano Company, sometimes backed by the French or British governments, made conflicting claims against Chile with limited success.[25] The commercial activities of Dreyfus Frères were ended. Fifty four lawyers argued for Dreyfus in three long-running trials.[citation needed] Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau was one of his advocates.[26]
Personal life
Family and friends
Dreyfus converted to Catholicism shortly before his marriage in Lima with the Peruvian Sofia Bergman on 15 August 1862.[3] It is in Lima, widowed and childless, that he married his second wife on 8 January 1873, Luisa González Orbegoso (1847-1924), Marquise de Villahermosa[c], granddaughter of Marshal Luis José de Orbegoso y Moncada, one of the first presidents of the Republic of Peru.
Two daughters and two sons were born of his second marriage:
- Emilie Dreyfus married the count, banker and politician Hervé de Lyrot, and her sister married his brother René de Lyrot.
- Louis (1874-1965), who was successively authorized by decree of 12 August 1885 to call himself Dreyfus-Gonzalez de Andia, then in 1925 by Alfonso XIII of Spain, to assume - contrary to the Spanish noble usage - the title of his mother, who died a year before, and finally, by decree of 26 July 1935, to remove Dreyfus from his name.[27]
- Édouard Dreyfus Gonzalez (1876-1941), lawyer, Count of Premio Real. He wrote songs under the name Jean Dora.{sfn|Conde de Premio Real}}
In 1907 the two brothers married the daughters of Archambaud de Talleyrand-Périgord and Marie de Gontaut-Biron, respectively Félicie (1878-1981) and Anne-Hélène (1877-1945).
Dreyfus was closely linked to the Republicans of his time. He was close to Jules Grévy, his first defender, who received him with his family in his chateau Mont-sous-Vaudrey. In a first testament dated 1890, he designated Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau as his executor. Despite his conversion, he was a favorite target of anti-semites.[28] A court refused an order to grant French citizenship to one of his sons.[29]
Dreyus fell ill and died in Paris on 25 May 1897.
Art collector
In 1874 Dreyfus's hôtel at 3, Avenue Ruysdaël in Paris was furnished with a large collection of art for which he made a detailed inventory ten years later, published in the magazine "La Nature" of 29 October 1887 (pp. 344-346). His widow lived there until 1924.
Dreyfus showed objects in the Peru pavilion at the Exposition Universelle (1878) in Paris, including furniture encrusted with pearls and objects of art. He also sent three mummies from Peru to the Paris Anthropological society in 1878.[2] In June 1888 Dreyfus bought the domain of the Château de Pontchartrain from Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck.[30] In 1891 the architect Émile Boeswillwald was given the task of restoring the chateau.[31]
In June 1889 Dreyfus sold 116 items from his collection, realizing 861,000 francs.[32] In June 1896 the Dreyfus-Gonzalez collection was sold at public auction in Paris, and included among other valuables four candelabra called "the sirens and garlands of leaves" (c. 1783-1784) attributed to the great bronze sculptor François Remond and coming from a series of six that were part of the furniture of the Parisian hotel of the second Duke of Praslin (1735-1791), which were acquired by the Duke of Hamilton. They were sold to Dreyfus in 1882.[33]
References
Notes
- ^ The cold Humboldt Current runs north along the coast of Peru and is rich in fish. It provides food for a huge population of seabirds. The climate is warm and dry, and bird droppings accumulate to great depth, particularly on the Chincha Islands. The guano deposits had great value as fertilizer and played a central role in the Peruvian economy for most of the 19th century.[1]
- ^ In the 1860s a Peruvian sole was worth almost a dollar.[8] 50 soles was ₤7.6.[7]
- ^ Villahermosa is the capital of Tabasco, in southern Mexico.
Citations
- ^ Hollett 2008, p. 24.
- ^ a b Riviale 1996, p. 376.
- ^ a b Barjot 2002, p. 150.
- ^ a b c Novak 2005, p. 140.
- ^ a b c d Clayton 1985, p. 54.
- ^ Clayton 1985, p. 53.
- ^ a b c d e Aggarwal 1996, p. 199.
- ^ Pletcher 1998, p. 198.
- ^ a b c d Farcau 2000, p. 18.
- ^ Bethell 2008, p. 551.
- ^ Clayton 1985, p. 57.
- ^ Clayton 1985, p. 57-58.
- ^ a b c Aggarwal 1996, p. 200.
- ^ Clayton 1985, p. 58.
- ^ Farcau 2000, p. 19.
- ^ Kaufman & Macpherson 2005, p. 437.
- ^ Cushman 2013, p. 68.
- ^ Clayton 1985, p. 61.
- ^ a b Aggarwal 1996, p. 205.
- ^ Clayton 1985, p. 146.
- ^ Aggarwal 1996, p. 210.
- ^ Aggarwal 1996, p. 216.
- ^ Aggarwal 1996, p. 219.
- ^ Aggarwal 1996, p. 220.
- ^ Aggarwal 1996, p. 220ff.
- ^ Mayeur 2003, p. 224.
- ^ Conde de Premio Real.
- ^ L'Ami de la religion, p. 217.
- ^ Journal du droit international, par Édouard Clunet, p. 412
- ^ Rounding 2004, p. 282.
- ^ Paris et Ile-de-France 1979, p. 263.
- ^ Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia 1890, p. 320.
- ^ La Gazette de l'Hotel Drouot, p. 62-63.
Sources
- Aggarwal, Vinod K. (1996-04-26). Debt Games: Strategic Interaction in International Debt Rescheduling. Cambridge University Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-521-55552-4. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events: Embracing Political, Military, and Ecclesiastical Affairs; Public Documents; Biography, Statistics, Commerce, Finance, Literature, Science, Agriculture, and Mechanical Industry. Appleton. 1890. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- Barjot, Dominique (2002). Les patrons du Second Empire: Banquiers et financiers parisiens. Picard. ISBN 978-2-905596-84-0. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Bethell, Leslie (2008). The Cambridge History of Latin America: From independence to c. 1870. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Clayton, Lawrence A. (1985). Grace: W.R. Grace & Co : The Formative Years, 1850-1930. Lawrence Clayton. ISBN 978-0-915463-25-1. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - "Conde de Premio Real". Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- Cushman, Gregory T. (2013-03-25). Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History. Cambridge University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-107-00413-9. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Farcau, Bruce W. (2000-01-01). The Ten Cents War: Chile, Peru, and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific, 1879-1884. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-96925-7. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hollett, Dave (2008-01). More Precious Than Gold: The Story of the Peruvian Guano Trade. Associated University Presse. ISBN 978-0-8386-4131-6. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Kaufman, Will; Macpherson, Heidi Slettedahl (2005). Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. ABC-CLIO. p. 437. ISBN 978-1-85109-431-8. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - La Gazette de l'Hotel Drouot, no. 23, 14 June 2013
{{citation}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - Mayeur, Jean Marie (2003). Les parlementaires de la troisiéme république: actes du colloque international organisâe par le Centre de recherches en histoire du XIXe siécle, Université Paris I et Paris IV, UMR 8072 du CNRS, les 18 et 19 octobre 2001. Publications de la Sorbonne. ISBN 978-2-85944-484-6. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Novak, Fabián (2005-01-01). Las relaciones entre el Perú y Francia, 1827-2004 (in Spanish). Fondo Editorial PUCP. ISBN 978-9972-42-721-3. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Paris et Ile-de-France: mémoires. Librairie C. Klincksieck. 1979. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- Pletcher, David M. (1998). The Diplomacy of Trade and Investment: American Economic Expansion in the Hemisphere, 1865-1900. University of Missouri Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-8262-1127-9. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Riviale, Pascal (1996). Un siècle d'archéologie française au Pérou: 1821-1914. Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-7384-4758-6. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Rounding, Virginia (2004). Grandes Horizontales. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-6859-9. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)
Further reading
- Bonilla, Heraclio (1973). Auguste Dreyfus y el monopolio del guano. Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. Retrieved 2013-06-21.