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Jacques Laffitte
Jacques Laffitte (24 October 1767 – 26 May 1844) was a leading French banker, governor of the Bank of France (1814–1820) and liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy. He was an important figure in the development of new banking techniques during the early stages of industrialization in France. In politics, he played a decisive role during the Revolution of 1830 that brought Louis-Philippe, the duc d'Orléans, to the throne, replacing the unpopular Bourbon king Charles X.
Laffitte was named president of the new Citizen King's Council of Ministers and Minister of Finances (2 November 1830 – 13 March 1831). After a brief ministry of 131 days, his "Party of Movement" gave way before the "Party of Order" led by the banker Casimir-Pierre Périer. Laffitte left office discredited politically and financially ruined. He rebounded financially in 1836 with his creation of the Caisse Générale du Commerce et de l'Industrie, a forerunner of French investment banks of the second half of the 19th century such as the Crédit Mobilier (1852). The Caisse Générale did not survive the financial crisis caused by the Revolution of 1848.
Laffitte was born in 1767 at Bayonne in the French Basque Country, one of four sons and six daughters of Pierre Laffitte, a master carpenter. He apprenticed with his father for a time, but also found clerking positions with a local notary and merchant. In 1788, at 21 years of age and on the eve of the Revolution in France, he arrived in Paris at the offices of the prominent Swiss banker Jean-Frédéric Perregaux (1744–1808), rue du Sentier, where he was hired as a bookkeeper. It was a starting position that offered Laffitte valuable learning experiences and great potential for advancement. Perregaux was a banker with a wealthy clientele, important foreign connections and friends in high places.
He was a shrewd, cosmopolitan businessman who prospered from the Revolution. He helped to bankroll Napoleon's rise to power and became a founder of the Bank of France in 1800 and president of its directing Council of Regents. Laffitte became Perregaux's right-hand man in the private bank and was promoted to a partnership in 1806. In 1807, because of Perregaux's declining health, he was named managing director and effective head of the bank. The bank's name was changed to "Perregaux, Laffitte and Company". Perregaux's son, Alphonse (1785–1841), and his sister, were sleeping partners (commanditaires). Virginie Monnier observes: "For the first time in the history of banks in France, a clerk took over his patron's position directly." When Perregaux died in 1808, Laffitte also took over his place as one of the fifteen regents of the Bank of France. He became president of the Chamber of Commerce of Paris (1810–1811) and was appointed as a judge of the Tribunal de commerce de la Seine (1813).
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, he was named provisional governor of the Bank of France by the incoming Bourbon king Louis XVIII. Napoleon, when on his way into final exile after Waterloo (15 June 1815), reportedly deposited 6 million francs in Laffitte's bank. When Napoleon's estate was being contested later in 1826, Laffitte calculated his bank's obligation at 3,856,121 francs, interest included.
During the Bourbon Restoration, "Jacques Laffitte and Company" was one of the wealthiest private banks in Paris and a leading firm among the select group of twenty or so banking houses known collectively as the "haute banque parisienne". Besides Laffitte, the group included the banks of Casimir and Scipion Perier fr, Benjamin Delessert, Jean Hottinguer, Adolphe Mallet, François Cottier fr, Antoine Odier, Jacques Lefebvre fr and Michel Pillet-Will fr.
The capital resources of such early 19th century banks were limited, but they associated for underwriting major government loans and for financing promising private business ventures. Laffitte associated with Delessert, Hottinguer, James de Rothschild and others to compete in 1817–18 with the powerful foreign banks of Baring Brothers (London) and Hope & Company (Amsterdam) for underwriting shares in France's loans of liberation. Earlier, in 1816, he took the lead with Delessert in founding the Compagnie Royale d'Assurances Maritimes,a pioneer joint-stock insurance company with a capitalization of 10 million francs. Laffitte was president and Casimir and Scipion Perier were among the administrators of this capital mobilizing venture. In 1818, along with fellow banker and industrialist Benjamin Delessert, Laffitte was a key figure in the establishment of the first French savings bank, the Caisse d'Épargne et de Prévoyance de Paris. Practically all of the members of the board of regents of the Bank of France, where Laffitte was then governor, were listed as administrators of the new bank. Laffitte was reaching the peak of his good fortune by 1818. He was sufficiently wealthy by then to be able to purchase the 17th century Château de Maisons (Department of Yvelines), near Paris, designed by the famous architect François Mansart. Before the Revolution, the beautiful château was the property of Louis XVI's brother, the comte d'Artois, who would come to the throne in 1824 as Charles X. Possessing Maisons, and being able to entertain notables of French society there in the former royal château, was a personal triumph for Laffitte, the son of a Bayonne carpenter. It was "le rêve d'un parvenu" (the dream of a newly rich) at a time when family history, titles and property holdings mattered so much.
In 1821–1822, Laffitte was the moving spirit behind the formation of the Compagnie des Quatre Canaux, a joint-stock company that mobilized the capital assets of haute banque members to help finance a major canal construction program initiated by the government. Laffitte's consortium obtained one-half of the total value of the loans made to the government. The top four lenders for the Four Canals Company were Jacques Laffitte & Co. (11,736,000 francs), H. Hentsch, Blanc & Co. (11,736,000), Pillet-Will & Co. (10,976,000) and André & Cottier (7,870,000). Laffitte's bid for an even larger share in the loans had been rejected by the ultra-royalist ministry of Count Jean-Antoine Villèle. In 1825, Laffitte's ambitious financial planning was frustrated a second time when Villèle refused to authorize his proposed Société Commanditaire de l'Industrie, a private investment bank designed to provide bank credit for large-scale industrial development in France. The Commanditaire, with Laffitte as its president, was to be capitalized at 100 million francs. It had the backing of French industrialists, many haute banque members in Paris and leading banking houses in London, Geneva and Frankfurt. Casimir Perier and the famous woolens industrialist William Ternaux were to have been its two vice-presidents. "L'esprit d'association" (the spirit of association), which was a broad slogan of the time among liberals for promoting economic progress, would have been exemplified by the company. But the Commanditaire was ill-timed politically: Laffitte was then a leader of the liberal opposition to the government of Charles X. Also, the plan was seen as too ambitious, even audacious, by the conservative regents and government administrators of the influential Bank of France. Laffitte would need to wait and try again after the July Revolution of 1830.
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Jacques Laffitte
Jacques Laffitte (24 October 1767 – 26 May 1844) was a leading French banker, governor of the Bank of France (1814–1820) and liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy. He was an important figure in the development of new banking techniques during the early stages of industrialization in France. In politics, he played a decisive role during the Revolution of 1830 that brought Louis-Philippe, the duc d'Orléans, to the throne, replacing the unpopular Bourbon king Charles X.
Laffitte was named president of the new Citizen King's Council of Ministers and Minister of Finances (2 November 1830 – 13 March 1831). After a brief ministry of 131 days, his "Party of Movement" gave way before the "Party of Order" led by the banker Casimir-Pierre Périer. Laffitte left office discredited politically and financially ruined. He rebounded financially in 1836 with his creation of the Caisse Générale du Commerce et de l'Industrie, a forerunner of French investment banks of the second half of the 19th century such as the Crédit Mobilier (1852). The Caisse Générale did not survive the financial crisis caused by the Revolution of 1848.
Laffitte was born in 1767 at Bayonne in the French Basque Country, one of four sons and six daughters of Pierre Laffitte, a master carpenter. He apprenticed with his father for a time, but also found clerking positions with a local notary and merchant. In 1788, at 21 years of age and on the eve of the Revolution in France, he arrived in Paris at the offices of the prominent Swiss banker Jean-Frédéric Perregaux (1744–1808), rue du Sentier, where he was hired as a bookkeeper. It was a starting position that offered Laffitte valuable learning experiences and great potential for advancement. Perregaux was a banker with a wealthy clientele, important foreign connections and friends in high places.
He was a shrewd, cosmopolitan businessman who prospered from the Revolution. He helped to bankroll Napoleon's rise to power and became a founder of the Bank of France in 1800 and president of its directing Council of Regents. Laffitte became Perregaux's right-hand man in the private bank and was promoted to a partnership in 1806. In 1807, because of Perregaux's declining health, he was named managing director and effective head of the bank. The bank's name was changed to "Perregaux, Laffitte and Company". Perregaux's son, Alphonse (1785–1841), and his sister, were sleeping partners (commanditaires). Virginie Monnier observes: "For the first time in the history of banks in France, a clerk took over his patron's position directly." When Perregaux died in 1808, Laffitte also took over his place as one of the fifteen regents of the Bank of France. He became president of the Chamber of Commerce of Paris (1810–1811) and was appointed as a judge of the Tribunal de commerce de la Seine (1813).
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, he was named provisional governor of the Bank of France by the incoming Bourbon king Louis XVIII. Napoleon, when on his way into final exile after Waterloo (15 June 1815), reportedly deposited 6 million francs in Laffitte's bank. When Napoleon's estate was being contested later in 1826, Laffitte calculated his bank's obligation at 3,856,121 francs, interest included.
During the Bourbon Restoration, "Jacques Laffitte and Company" was one of the wealthiest private banks in Paris and a leading firm among the select group of twenty or so banking houses known collectively as the "haute banque parisienne". Besides Laffitte, the group included the banks of Casimir and Scipion Perier fr, Benjamin Delessert, Jean Hottinguer, Adolphe Mallet, François Cottier fr, Antoine Odier, Jacques Lefebvre fr and Michel Pillet-Will fr.
The capital resources of such early 19th century banks were limited, but they associated for underwriting major government loans and for financing promising private business ventures. Laffitte associated with Delessert, Hottinguer, James de Rothschild and others to compete in 1817–18 with the powerful foreign banks of Baring Brothers (London) and Hope & Company (Amsterdam) for underwriting shares in France's loans of liberation. Earlier, in 1816, he took the lead with Delessert in founding the Compagnie Royale d'Assurances Maritimes,a pioneer joint-stock insurance company with a capitalization of 10 million francs. Laffitte was president and Casimir and Scipion Perier were among the administrators of this capital mobilizing venture. In 1818, along with fellow banker and industrialist Benjamin Delessert, Laffitte was a key figure in the establishment of the first French savings bank, the Caisse d'Épargne et de Prévoyance de Paris. Practically all of the members of the board of regents of the Bank of France, where Laffitte was then governor, were listed as administrators of the new bank. Laffitte was reaching the peak of his good fortune by 1818. He was sufficiently wealthy by then to be able to purchase the 17th century Château de Maisons (Department of Yvelines), near Paris, designed by the famous architect François Mansart. Before the Revolution, the beautiful château was the property of Louis XVI's brother, the comte d'Artois, who would come to the throne in 1824 as Charles X. Possessing Maisons, and being able to entertain notables of French society there in the former royal château, was a personal triumph for Laffitte, the son of a Bayonne carpenter. It was "le rêve d'un parvenu" (the dream of a newly rich) at a time when family history, titles and property holdings mattered so much.
In 1821–1822, Laffitte was the moving spirit behind the formation of the Compagnie des Quatre Canaux, a joint-stock company that mobilized the capital assets of haute banque members to help finance a major canal construction program initiated by the government. Laffitte's consortium obtained one-half of the total value of the loans made to the government. The top four lenders for the Four Canals Company were Jacques Laffitte & Co. (11,736,000 francs), H. Hentsch, Blanc & Co. (11,736,000), Pillet-Will & Co. (10,976,000) and André & Cottier (7,870,000). Laffitte's bid for an even larger share in the loans had been rejected by the ultra-royalist ministry of Count Jean-Antoine Villèle. In 1825, Laffitte's ambitious financial planning was frustrated a second time when Villèle refused to authorize his proposed Société Commanditaire de l'Industrie, a private investment bank designed to provide bank credit for large-scale industrial development in France. The Commanditaire, with Laffitte as its president, was to be capitalized at 100 million francs. It had the backing of French industrialists, many haute banque members in Paris and leading banking houses in London, Geneva and Frankfurt. Casimir Perier and the famous woolens industrialist William Ternaux were to have been its two vice-presidents. "L'esprit d'association" (the spirit of association), which was a broad slogan of the time among liberals for promoting economic progress, would have been exemplified by the company. But the Commanditaire was ill-timed politically: Laffitte was then a leader of the liberal opposition to the government of Charles X. Also, the plan was seen as too ambitious, even audacious, by the conservative regents and government administrators of the influential Bank of France. Laffitte would need to wait and try again after the July Revolution of 1830.
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