Barbe de Nettine

Alexander Roslin : Barbe de Nettine as a widow, 1761.

Barbe -Louise-Josèphe Vicomtesse de Nettine, born Stoupy (born November 20, 1706 in Arras , County Artois ; † December 4, 1775 in Brussels , Duchy of Brabant ) owned the most important bank in the Austrian Netherlands , which also served as a state bank .

Marriage to uncle

Barbe Stoupy was the oldest of the eight children of a lawyer in Arras in northern France. When she was 13, her parents entrusted her to her father's childless sister, Louise Nettine, in Brussels. Her husband Matthias (1686–1749) was under Archduchess Maria Elisabeth (1680–1741), who was the sister of the last Habsburg emperor Charles VI. 1725 became governor general of the Austrian Netherlands, collector of the court building office and court banker.

In the latter function, he initially competed with Pietro de Proli (1671–1733), who came from Milan , in Antwerp and with his widow Aldegonde, born Pauli (1685–1761). As Nettine 1735 his wife lost, he married with church dispensation the now 29-year-old bar Stoupy who gave him not only six children but was also the banking side.

During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), Maria Theresa , the eldest daughter of Charles VI, claimed ownership of the Austrian Netherlands. Under the new governor-general, her brother-in-law, Duke Karl von Lothringen (1712–1780), and the authorized ministers Kaunitz (from 1744), Botta (from 1749), Cobenzl (from 1753) and Starhemberg (from 1770), who took over the government in Brussels led, the bank Nettine 1744-1775 was the sole state bank.

Behind the scenes of power

Count Karl von Cobenzl .

After Nettine's death (1749), his widow expanded the bank's activities, in which her sons were also involved for a short time. Instead of the government in Brussels, it collected state revenue , placed bonds , transferred money abroad, paid interest and salaries , administered the state lottery , procured precious metal for minting coins and took part in companies .

She had the trust of the aforementioned Count Karl von Cobenzl (1712–1770), who made the Governor General a mere extras. Born in Carniola, he spent an hour chatting every lunchtime and an evening with her every week. For her part, she kept him afloat despite his high debts.

In 1756, a company that Mrs. Nettine was behind was granted a privilege to manufacture paper. This led to a conflict between the Governor General and the Minister on the one hand and the Finance Council in Brussels and the High Council of the Netherlands in Vienna on the other. As a result, Maria Theresa dissolved the High Council in 1757 and transferred responsibility for the Belgian provinces to the current State Chancellor, Wenzel Anton Prince Kaunitz (1711–1794).

During and after the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), Ms. Nettine passed on subsidies from France, an ally of Austria, from the Parisian court banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde (1724–1794) to the Viennese court banker Johann von Fries (1719–1785). She also took part in the covert use of income from the Austrian Netherlands to pay off war debts. For this purpose, she used the Gastos segretos (secret fund from the time of the Spanish Netherlands ) administered by her .

Called a bloodsucker

Poster stamp : coat of arms of Viscount André de Nettine ( sea Woman with ship-shaped lamp instead of scales ).

Maria Theresa made the late husband Mrs. Nettines a noble and her minor son a viscount , which allowed the Banquière to use the feminine form of these titles from 1758 and 1762 respectively. The family's coat of arms shows a golden mermaid holding silver scales .

Frau Nettine's influence had become too great for Kaunitz. He therefore proposed the establishment of a state bank in 1763, which the Banquière was able to torpedo. In the same year she and Cobenzl fell for the fraudster Saint-Germain , who had money advanced in order to evaluate secret proceedings in a factory in Tournai . In the same year Mrs. Nettine's brother Edmond-Sébastien-Joseph Stoupy (1713–1785) failed in the attempt to influence the successor to the wishes of Vienna as vicar general of the cardinal - Prince-Bishop of Liège .

Joseph II , who in 1765 became emperor and co-regent of his mother Maria Theresa in the states of the house of Austria, criticized the arbitrariness and extravagance of his uncle Karl von Lorraine. As commander in chief of the k. k. Army he subordinated the commanding general in the Austrian Netherlands in 1771, General of the Cavalry Joseph Karl Count d'Ayasasa (1715–1779) directly to the Court War Council in Vienna. In a report to this committee, Ayasasa referred to Madame Nettine as a bloodsucker ("sangsue"). They manage all state revenues and make disgraceful profits with army deliveries.

Four daughters in high finance

Carlo Bronne wrote that Ms. Nettine had asserted her position as “one of the essential parts of the government machine”, “without neglecting her maternal duties”. While their sons Dominique (1738–1759) and André (1745–1766) died young, the four daughters received husbands from high finance. The eldest Dieudonnée-Louise-Joséphine (1736-1789) was married in 1755 to Adrien-Ange de Walckiers (1721-1799). After her mother's death, she inherited the bank Veuve Nettine et fils (Widow Nettine and Son), which existed until the beginning of the 19th century. Her son Joseph-Édouard-Sébastien de Walckiers (1758-1837) was appointed general tax collector ( Receveur général des finances ) by Joseph II in 1784 , which did not prevent him from participating in the Brabant Revolution in 1789 as a supporter of Jan Frans Vonck .

In order to strengthen the alliance of the Houses of Austria-Lorraine and Bourbon, concluded in 1756 , Cobenzl and France's Prime Minister Duke Étienne-François de Choiseul arranged a marriage between Mrs Nettine's second daughter Rosalie-Claire-Josèphe (1737-1820) and the aforementioned court banker Laborde in 1760. In 1762, the latter paired up his sisters-in-law Anne-Rose-Josèphe (1739–1813) and Marie-Louise-Josèphe (1742–1808) with treasurer ( Garde du Trésor ) Joseph de Micault d'Harvelay (1723–1786) and chief of protocol ( Introducteur des Ambassadeurs ) Ange-Laurent de Lalive de Jully (1725–1779). After Micault's death, Anne-Rose-Josèphe married the former Minister of Finance ( Contrôleur général des finances ) Charles-Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802) in 1788 .

gallery

After Jean-Joseph Bernard: Barbe de Nettine as a widow, 1763.
Alexander Roslin School: Rosalie-Claire-Josèphe de Laborde, around 1760.
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun : Anne-Rose-Josèphe de Micault d'Harvelay, 1781.
Joseph Ducreux : Marie-Louise-Josèphe de Lalive de Jully.

literature

Carlos de Villermont: La Cour de Vienne et Bruxelles au XVIIIe siècle. Le Comte de Cobenzl , Ministre plénipotentiaire aux Pais-Bas. Desclée, de Brouwer, Lille 1925.
Ghislaine De Boom: Les Ministres plénipotentiaires dans les Pais-Bas autrichiens , principalement Cobenzl. Mémoire couronné par l ' Académie Royale de Belgique . Maurice Lamertin, Bruxelles 1932, p. 64 / note. 4, 170, 173, 176, 189–191, 203 / note. 3.
Yves Carlier de Fontobbia: La Vicomtesse de Nettine, trésorière des Pays-Bas au XVIIIe siècle et l'un des principaux agents de l'influence française. In: La Vie française, November 10, 1935; L'Insurgé, March 1, 1936; Annales du prince de Ligne , 18/1937, pp. 23–31.
Valéry Janssens: Het geldwezen der Oostenrijkse Nederlanden ( Negotiating van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België , class of letters 29). Paleis der Academiën, Brussel 1957 ( Diss. , Rijksuniversiteit Gent 1955), pp. 227-231.
Herbert Lüthy : La Banque Protestante en France. Volume 2, S. E. V. P. E. N., Paris 1961, pp. 38 f., 657-663, 680.
Valéry Janssens: Madame de Nettine et Edouard de Walckiers, banquiers d'Etat au XVIIIe siècle. In: BNB, Revue mensuelle publiée par et pour le personnel de la Banque nationale de Belgique , 1965, pp. 4–23.
Carlo Bronne : Madame de Nettine, banquière des Pays-Bas. In: Financiers et comédiens au XVIIIe siècle, Ad. Goemaere, Bruxelles 1969, pp. 7-255.
Valéry Janssens: Mevrouw De Nettine, state banker in de 18de eeuw. In: Bank en Financiewezen / Revue de la Banque, 8/1969, pp. 679–689.
Peter George Muir Dickson: Finance and Government under Maria Theresia 1740–1780. Clarendon Press , Oxford 1987, Volume 1, ISBN 978-0198225706 , pp. 185-191; Volume 2, ISBN 978-0198228820 , pp. 177, 182 f., 285, 293.
Michèle Galand: Dans les coulisses du pouvoir. La veuve Nettine (1706-1775), banquière de l'Etat dans les Pays-Bas Austria. In: Femmes de culture et de pouvoir. Liber amicorum Andrée Despy-Meyer ( Sextant 13 f.), Université Libre de Bruxelles , Bruxelles 2000, pp. 69-80 ( digitized version ).

References and comments

↑ France had occupied the Austrian Netherlands until the Peace of Aachen .
↑ The brother of her husband Emperor Franz I originally held the office together with his wife, Maria Theresa's sister Archduchess Maria Anna (1718–1744), who however died in her first childbed.
^ Alfred Ritter von Arneth : Count Philipp Cobenzl and his memoirs. Carl Gerold's Sohn, Vienna 1885, pp. 74, 76, 79, 82 ( digitized version ).
^ Philippe Moureaux : Un épisode mouvementé des relations entre le Ministre Cobenzl et la banque Nettine (1755-1756). In: Patrons, gens d'affaires et banquiers. Hommages à Ginette Kurgan-van Hentenryk, Le Livre Timperman, Bruxelles 2004, ISBN 978-9077723036 , pp. 93-106.
↑ See Yves-René Durand: Mémoires de Jean-Joseph de Laborde , fermier général et banquier de la cour. In: Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France, 1968 f., Pp. 73-162 ( digitized version ).
^ (Jean-Charles-Joseph de Vegiano :) VI Suite du supplément du nobiliaire des Pays-Bas, et du comté de Bourgogne. P. J. Hanicq, Malines 1779, pp. 295, 306 ( digitized version ).
^ Heinrich Benedikt : When Belgium was Austrian. Herold, Vienna 1965, pp. 131–143.
^ Alfred Ritter von Arneth: History of Maria Theresa. 10th volume, Wilhelm Braumüller, Vienna 1879, pp. 213-216, 785 f. ( Digitized version ).
^ Peter George Muir Dickson: Finance and Government under Maria Theresia 1740–1780. Clarendon Press , Oxford 1987, Volume 1, ISBN 978-0198225706 , p. 189 / note. 35; Derek Beales : Joseph II. Volume 1, Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1987, ISBN 978-0521242400 , p. 485 f./notes. 19th
^ Carlo Bronne : Madame de Nettine, banquière des Pays-Bas. In: Financiers et comédiens au XVIIIe siècle, Ad. Goemaere, Bruxelles 1969, pp. 7-255, here: p. 145.
↑ Lalive was a protégé Madame de Pompadours from a family of general tax tenants and Salonnières ( Madame d'Houdetot was his sister, Madame d'Épinay his sister-in-law).
^ "This work is uninformative about the business of the bank Nettine, but contains useful genealogical and topographical information." (Peter George Muir Dickson: Finance and Government under Maria Theresia 1740–1780. Clarendon Press , Oxford 1987, Volume 1, ISBN 978 -0198225706 , p. 185 / note 19.)

personal data
SURNAME	Nettine, Barbe de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Veuve Nettine; Nettine, Barbe-Louise-Josèphe de (full name); Stoupy, Barbe-Louise-Josèphe (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Belgian bank owner
DATE OF BIRTH	November 20, 1706
PLACE OF BIRTH	Arras , France
DATE OF DEATH	4th December 1775
Place of death	Brussels , Austrian Netherlands

[1] France had occupied the Austrian Netherlands until the Peace of Aachen .

[2] The brother of her husband Emperor Franz I originally held the office together with his wife, Maria Theresa's sister Archduchess Maria Anna (1718–1744), who however died in her first childbed.

[3] Alfred Ritter von Arneth : Count Philipp Cobenzl and his memoirs. Carl Gerold's Sohn, Vienna 1885, pp. 74, 76, 79, 82 ( digitized version ).

[4] Philippe Moureaux : Un épisode mouvementé des relations entre le Ministre Cobenzl et la banque Nettine (1755-1756). In: Patrons, gens d'affaires et banquiers. Hommages à Ginette Kurgan-van Hentenryk, Le Livre Timperman, Bruxelles 2004, ISBN 978-9077723036 , pp. 93-106.

[5] See Yves-René Durand: Mémoires de Jean-Joseph de Laborde , fermier général et banquier de la cour. In: Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France, 1968 f., Pp. 73-162 ( digitized version ).

[6] (Jean-Charles-Joseph de Vegiano :) VI Suite du supplément du nobiliaire des Pays-Bas, et du comté de Bourgogne. P. J. Hanicq, Malines 1779, pp. 295, 306 ( digitized version ).

[7] Heinrich Benedikt : When Belgium was Austrian. Herold, Vienna 1965, pp. 131–143.

[8] Alfred Ritter von Arneth: History of Maria Theresa. 10th volume, Wilhelm Braumüller, Vienna 1879, pp. 213-216, 785 f. ( Digitized version ).

[9] Peter George Muir Dickson: Finance and Government under Maria Theresia 1740–1780. Clarendon Press , Oxford 1987, Volume 1, ISBN 978-0198225706 , p. 189 / note. 35; Derek Beales : Joseph II. Volume 1, Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1987, ISBN 978-0521242400 , p. 485 f./notes. 19th

[10] Carlo Bronne : Madame de Nettine, banquière des Pays-Bas. In: Financiers et comédiens au XVIIIe siècle, Ad. Goemaere, Bruxelles 1969, pp. 7-255, here: p. 145.

[11] Lalive was a protégé Madame de Pompadours from a family of general tax tenants and Salonnières ( Madame d'Houdetot was his sister, Madame d'Épinay his sister-in-law).

[12] "This work is uninformative about the business of the bank Nettine, but contains useful genealogical and topographical information." (Peter George Muir Dickson: Finance and Government under Maria Theresia 1740–1780. Clarendon Press , Oxford 1987, Volume 1, ISBN 978 -0198225706 , p. 185 / note 19.)