Joseph von Bolza

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Humbert Anton Joseph Maria Ignatius Graf von Bolza (born August 1, 1719 in Vienna , † August 15, 1782 in Dresden ) was a financier and court banker from the Saxon region, as well as a Bohemian textile entrepreneur.

origin

The Bolza in Bohemia come from a family in Naples who achieved the nobility in 1373 and the count in 1789, and in Bohemia in 1762 they achieved the hereditary-Austrian count and incolate in the lordship. The St. Albert calendar from 1768 lists Joseph Count Bolza, formerly his royal majesty in Poland and electoral highness in Saxony, real secret councilor and chamberlain as the owner of the manors of Kosmanos in Bunzlauer and Arnau in the Bidzower district.

Joseph Graf von Bolza was a son of the Viennese banker, Saxon-Polish diplomat and secret war councilor Giovanni Battista (Johann Baptist) Bolza. His mother Maria Marg. Giovanna Forni was a daughter of Don Giuseppe Forni and Anna Cat. Guaita .

Financier in Saxony

From 1738 Joseph Count Bolza headed his father's banking house in Vienna and followed him to Dresden in 1741 . At the electoral court he was involved in various financial transactions and in the implementation of the financial policy implemented by Prime Minister Heinrich von Brühl , which later failed. In 1752 he tried unsuccessfully to take over the Saxon tobacco monopoly. In 1754 he initially leased part of the excise income for seven years , in 1755 together with Heinrich Carl Schimmelmann and with the participation of the Austrian Emperor Franz I Stephan . In 1754 he was given the title of Real Secret War Council, and the following year that of Secret Council.

During the Seven Years' War he provided the court of the electoral prince and the royal court in Warsaw with money loans at high interest rates . In relation to the Prussian occupation in Saxony in 1759, he concealed the exact amount of the income from the excise, so that the Saxon state remained a not insignificant sum. Despite various opaque deals with the Prussians , he was able to maintain his influence at the Saxon and Austrian courts.

On January 20, 1759, he was given the title of Real Secret Council. In 1760, on behalf of the Austrian government, he established a close relationship between the imperial military leadership and the Saxon ministers. On August 3, 1762, he was raised to the status of Austrian hereditary count.

With the general main treasury set up according to his plan in 1773, the financial system in the Rétablissement (Kursachsen) was simplified and modernized.

Entrepreneurs in Bohemia

Joseph von Bolza married in 1759 originating from Bohemian nobility maid Joan of Martinitz that in 1760 the manorial Kosmanos bought. He received the Bohemian Inkolat on February 13, 1762 and in the same year acquired the manor of Neuschloß - Arnau .

In Josefsthal near Kosmanos he had one of the first textile manufacturers in Bohemia built, which opened in 1763 and processed calico . 400 weavers worked for him in various houses in Kosmanos and the surrounding area. A dyeing and calico printing plant was established in Josefstal . In 1764 he had to recruit his own spinners, as his previous supplier, Count Waldstein, was now processing his yarn himself. His weaving mill lacked yarn, so that he could not produce enough fabric to run the dyeing and printing works economically. Even the importation of foreign calico at a reduced rate of duty did not bring about lasting economic recovery. Increasing competition from other textile manufacturers established in Bohemia caused him to close his factory in 1770, in which he had invested more than 500,000 guilders by then .

In 1772 the Schüle brothers from Augsburg , three nephews of the calico manufacturer Johann Heinrich Schüle , became Bolza's partners. Johann Matthias Schüle managed the business of the reopened factory, Bolza became a silent partner . Schüle reorganized the calico printing company based on the Augsburg model and employed women and children for printing and painting, who were cheaper than men. After Schüle had to endure a criminal investigation because of the illegal purchase of foreign chemicals, the Schüle brothers withdrew from the company. Bolza continued to run the factory alone, which ran well in the following years, also benefiting from the new customs regulations introduced in 1775. In 1778, the outbreak of the War of the Bavarian Succession brought the plant to a standstill. Foreign workers had to leave Bohemia, the factory buildings and Kosmanos Castle were used as a hospital . Bolza's request to the Empress Maria Theresa to resume operations by means of a tariff reduction for foreign calico or a loan to buy printing canvas was unsuccessful; he died as a royal Saxon privy councilor in Dresden in 1782.

In 1793 the company was taken over by the textile industrialist Johann Josef Leitenberger , who expanded the company with his brother Franz Leitenberger (1761-1825) and his son-in-law, the chemist Ignaz von Orlando (1785-1846), into a group of companies with an international reputation.

family

Joseph Graf von Bolza was married to Johanna Nepomucena Philippine von Martinitz (* 1732; † 1804) since 1759 . He had a son with her, Joseph (* December 10, 1764, † 1834), and three daughters. His widow married Count Friedrich Gotthard von Mirbach (1746–1827) in 1786 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to ADB Volume 3, p. 116 he was born on July 31, 1719
  2. ↑ The coats of arms of the Bohemian nobility, J. Siebmacher's large book of arms. (reprographic reprint from 1886), Neustadt an der Aisch 1979, ISBN 3-87947-030-8 , p. 107, coat of arms table 58.
  3. ↑ Julius Franz Schneller: Austria's influence on Germany and Europe from the Reformation to the revolutions of our day , vol. 2. Franckh brothers, Stuttgart 1829, pp. 94-95 ( Google Books ).
  4. ↑ a b Arthur Salz: History of the Bohemian Industry in Modern Times. Duncker & Humblot, Munich / Leipzig 1913, pp. 350–358. (Digitized version)
  5. ^ Gustav Otruba : The Leitenberger family. In: Ferdinand Seibt (Hrsg.): Life pictures for the history of the Bohemian countries. Volume 4, Oldenbourg Verlag, 1981, ISBN 3-486-50591-2 , p. 91. ( Google Books )
  6. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : German count houses of the present in heraldic, historical and genealogical relation. Volume 1, Weigel, Leipzig 1853, pp. 100–101 ( Google Books )
personal data
SURNAME Bolza, Joseph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bolza, Josef von; Bolza, Joseph Imperial Count of; Bolza, Humbert Anton Joseph Maria Ignatius von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon financier and banker, Bohemian textile entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1719
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1782
Place of death Dresden