Giovanni Antonio Calzabigi

Giovanni Antonio Calzabigi (* in Livorno ; † probably around 1769 in Italy ) was an Italian lottery operator. He introduced the lottery in Prussia .

Life

Little is known about Giovanni Antonio Calzabigi's early years and sources contradict one another. Some data from the life of his brother Ranieri de 'Calzabigi have immigrated into his biography. The two were offspring of a Livornese merchant family. Possibly he was trained in a ministry in Naples . In 1757 he and his brother Ranieri introduced the Genoese Lotto , a variant of the number lottery , in Paris . The adventurer and writer Giacomo Casanova , whom the two had met in Paris, only took part in their Loterie de l'École Royale Militaire as a passive “receveur particulier” (private collector) .

Later he is said to have reintroduced a number lottery together with his brother in Brussels and then probably left this city under pressure from creditors. Ranieri tried his hand at Vienna in 1761 , but where he had to give way to his rival Cataldi, while Giovanni Antonio went to London . However, there was already an established state lottery, so that Calzabigi finally moved to Prussia. Probably a recommendation from the London ambassador von Knyphausen to the Prussian king mediated the contact, which would then prove to be favorable for the "skilled and very dangerous soldier of fortune": After the Seven Years' War had ended with the Peace of Hubertusburg , Friedrich II. faced the problem of rebuilding his country. The king also wanted to realize his architectural plans without burdening the state treasury too much. On February 8, 1763, he therefore set up a lottery with money from the war chest by first establishing a state monopoly.

The maximum stakes were limited so that the lottery entrepreneur did not take too much of a risk. Five of 90 numbers were drawn each time, with various possible uses with different levels of profit distributions. On June 10, 1763, the revenue comptoirs in Berlin and all the royal provinces were opened, the first drawing took place on August 31 of the same year. The lottery was drawn and settled ten times according to the original system of self-administration. But after a profit of 20,000 thalers had been incurred, Frederick II gave the lottery to his newly appointed secret finance and commerce councilor, now known as Johann Anton von Calzabigi, who was to pay an annual lease of 100,000 thalers .

In 1766 Calzabigi withdrew from the lottery business and probably returned to his home country. For three years he received a pension of 3300 thalers each; after that he probably died.

Trivia

Calzabigi and his lottery are themed in Ernst von Salomon's novel Die Schöne Wilhelmine (1965) and also play a role in Tibor Rode's thriller Das Los (2014).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Sabine Schönbein, The Millionaire Game with Tradition: The History of the Class Lottery , BoD 2008, ISBN 978-3-8334-8779-8 , pp. 134-137.
↑ ^a ^b ^c J. DE Preuss, Friedrich the Great. A life story , third volume, Berlin 1833, p. 35 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c Entrepreneurship in the field of tension between politics and society: entrepreneurial activities from a historical perspective; Contributions collected in honor of Alice Teichova . In: Herbert Matis (Ed.): Publications of the Austrian Society for Company History . tape 28 . LIT Verlag Münster, 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50215-5 , p. 27 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 13, 2017]).
^ Rudolf Sieghart, History and Statistics of the Number Lottery in Austria , Berlin 1898, p. 15 .
↑ Odebrecht, History of the Prussian Lottery Facilities from 1763 to 1815. In: Zeitschrift für Prussische Geschichte und Landeskunde , Volume 1, pp. 33–46, here p. 37 .
^ Johann Karl Wezel, Bernd Auerochs, Klaus Manger: Complete edition in 8 volumes: Schriften 1 (Critical Writings) Mattes, 1997, p. 1122 .
^ ^A ^b Odebrecht, History of the Prussian Lottery Facilities from 1763 to 1815. In: Journal for Prussian History and Regional Studies , Volume 1, pp. 33-46, here Journal for Prussian History and Regional Studies , Volume 1, p. 41 .

personal data
SURNAME	Calzabigi, Giovanni Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian lottery operator
DATE OF BIRTH	1714
DATE OF DEATH	1795

[Schönbein-1] Sabine Schönbein, The Millionaire Game with Tradition: The History of the Class Lottery , BoD 2008, ISBN 978-3-8334-8779-8 , pp. 134-137.

[Preuß-2] J. DE Preuss, Friedrich the Great. A life story , third volume, Berlin 1833, p. 35 .

[Matis-3] Entrepreneurship in the field of tension between politics and society: entrepreneurial activities from a historical perspective; Contributions collected in honor of Alice Teichova . In: Herbert Matis (Ed.): Publications of the Austrian Society for Company History . tape 28 . LIT Verlag Münster, 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-50215-5 , p. 27 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 13, 2017]).

[4] Rudolf Sieghart, History and Statistics of the Number Lottery in Austria , Berlin 1898, p. 15 .

[5] Odebrecht, History of the Prussian Lottery Facilities from 1763 to 1815. In: Zeitschrift für Prussische Geschichte und Landeskunde , Volume 1, pp. 33–46, here p. 37 .

[6] Johann Karl Wezel, Bernd Auerochs, Klaus Manger: Complete edition in 8 volumes: Schriften 1 (Critical Writings) Mattes, 1997, p. 1122 .

[Odebrecht_41-7] A ^b Odebrecht, History of the Prussian Lottery Facilities from 1763 to 1815. In: Journal for Prussian History and Regional Studies , Volume 1, pp. 33-46, here Journal for Prussian History and Regional Studies , Volume 1, p. 41 .