Pereire brothers
Émile Pereire (3 December 1800,
Family
The brothers' grandfather was
In 1824 Emile Pereire married his cousin Herminie Rodrigues, whose mother was Henriette's sister.[2]: 40 They had five surviving children: Fanny (born 1825), Cécile (born 1829), Claire (born 1834), Isaac-Emile (known as Emile II, born 1840) and Henry (born 1841).
In 1830 Isaac Pereire married Rachel Laurence Lopès Fonseca, a cousin of both him and Herminie;[2]: 63 they had two sons, Eugène (born 1831) and Georges (born 1836). After Laurence's untimely death in 1837 he remarried with his niece Fanny in August 1841. Their three surviving children were Gustave (born 1846), Henriette (born 1853) and Jeanne (born 1856). Two other boys, Jules (1843) and Julien (1845) died in infancy, and a disabled one, Edouard, died in 1876 at age twenty-one.[2]: 170
Eugène, Emile II, Henry and Gustave all studied at École Centrale Paris. Several of the Pereire children married into established families of French haute finance and business elite. Claire in 1853 married Georges Thurneyssen, son of the Protestant banker and Pereire business partner Auguste Thurneyssen. Eugène in 1859 married Juliette Betzi Fould, daughter of Emile Fould, the Pereires' notary and himself a cousin of Achille Fould. Emile II in 1864 married Suzanne Chevalier, daughter of Michel Chevalier's brother Auguste. Henriette married Eugène Mir , a businessman and politician.
Eugène Pereire, Isaac's elder son, led much of the remaining family business upon his father's death in 1880. His granddaughter Noémie Halphen married Maurice de Rothschild from the family of the Pereires' longstanding competitors. Gustave's son Alfred Pereire was a noted historian and bibliographer.
Business development
Emile and Isaac Pereire moved from Bordeaux to Paris in 1822 and 1823 respectively, where they initially lived in the house of their uncle
The Pereire brothers founded a leading business conglomerate. Enterprises created or sponsored by the Pereires included:[2]
- the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain created in 1835, with service inaugurated in 1837, merged in 1855 into the Pereires' Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Ouest, one of France's main railways companies, merged in 1908 into the Chemins de fer de l'État
- the Banque de France in 1867 following the difficulties of the Compagnie Immobilière[2]: 213
- the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi, created in 1852, one of the major French railway companies until their nationalization into SNCF in 1938
- the Château Palmer winery in the Margaux AOC region near Bordeaux, purchased by the Pereires in 1853 and kept in the family until its sale in 1938[2]: 230
- the Société des transports en commun de la région parisienne, now RATP Group[2]: 230
- the Compagnie parisienne de gaz , created in 1855 to operate Paris's gas lighting concession, liquidated in 1905 with the concession's expiry[2]: 230
- the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique shipping company, created in 1855 as Compagnie Générale Maritime, one of the predecessor entities of CMA CGM
- The building later known as Louvre Saint-Honoré, with the Grand Hôtel du Louvre and retail mall Magasins du Louvre on its street level, created in 1855 and at the root of the Groupe du Louvre[2]: 230
- the Compagnie Immobilière de Paris, formed in 1856Banque de France together with the Crédit Mobilier in 1867 and eventually liquidated in 1881[2]: 214
- the fire and accident company La Confiance and the house insurance company La Paternelle, both controlled from 1859[1]: 129, 389 [2]: 130 , both among the predecessor entities of Axa
- the Entrepôts des magasins généraux de Paris which operated major warehousing facilities in and around Paris, created in 1860,[1]: 255 now part of Icade
- The Spanish insurance company El Fénix Español, created in 1864[2]: 231 and merged in 1879 to form La Unión y el Fénix , now part of Allianz
The Pereires were also instrumental in the creation and/or development of businesses they did not effectively control. These included:
- the Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris, created in 1848,[2]: 120 one of the main predecessor entities of BNP Paribas
- the Crédit Foncier de France, created in 1852,[2]: 106, 120 now part of Groupe BPCE
- the Darmstädter Bank, created in 1853–54,[2]: 128 forcibly merged into Dresdner Bank in 1931
- the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways, created in 1854[1]: 261 and dismantled into national companies in 1918
- the Sociedad de Crédito Mobiliario Español bank, created in Madrid in 1855-56 and reformed in 1902 as the Banco Español de Crédito, now part of Banco Santander
- the Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, created in 1856[1]: 150
- the Grande société des chemins de fer russes railway company in Russia, created in 1856[1]: 265
- the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España railway company in Spain, created in 1858 and nationalized in 1941[2]: 230
- the Chantier Scott in Saint-Nazaire, created in 1862 to build ships for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, one of the predecessor entities of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique
- the Credito Mobiliare in Turin, taken over by restructuring a former Rothschild venture in 1862 on the model of the Crédit Mobilier,[2]: 203 liquidated in 1894 in the crisis context of the formation of the Bank of Italy
- the Imperial Ottoman Bank, reformed in 1863,[2]: 203 eventually merged in 2001 into Garanti Bank
- the Crédit Foncier d'Autriche, created in 1864[1]: 158
Even though the Pereires were not involved, their success with the
The Pereires also sponsored coal mining developments in Lorraine and Northern France.[4]
Politics and media
The Pereires were deeply involved in French politics. Emile Pereire was member of Parliament (député) for the département of Gironde between 1863 and 1869. Isaac was similarly député for the Pyrénées-Orientales between 1863 and 1869, and for the Aude in 1869–1870. Isaac's son Eugène was also a député in the Tarn during the same period.[1]: 270
They also maintained a lifelong involvement in public debates through the media. In the 1820s Emile wrote regularly in
Downfall
In the mid-1860s, the Pereires' alliances in the haute finance began to fray. Their attempt to challenge the issue monopoly of the
In any case, the Pereires' heyday came to an end with the demise of the Second Empire, with which they had been deeply associated. One of the Second Empire's key political protagonists, Persigny, would thus write in his memoirs:[1]: 309-310
I wanted an instrument that would free the new regime (the Second Empire) from the tutelage under which financiers usually hold governments, and which would be particularly dangerous as I felt the hostility of the great financial powers-that-be against the new regime. Without a doubt, had the Credit Mobilier not been there to steer and move them forward, the policy of the Empire, as it would have been forced to compromise with the Haute Banque, could not have been as bold and unconstrained as it was.[5]
— Persigny, Mémoires (1896)
Family properties
In 1852 the Pereires bought a vast estate in
In 1854 they purchased the hôtel particulier on 15 Place Vendôme to make it the headquarters of the Crédit Mobilier, and kept it as such until 1867. The same building was transformed into a luxury hotel in 1898 by César Ritz and is now the Hôtel Ritz Paris.
In 1855 they acquired their urban mansion, the Hotel Pereire on 35-37 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, initially built in 1713, and had it extensively renovated until 1859, also by Armand.[1]: 389 [2]: 180 That property was purchased by the British government in 1947 and is now the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Paris.
Their villa in Arcachon, built in 1863–1854 in their real estate development there, was demolished in 1959.[6]
Legacy
The Pereires were active in real estate development and created some of the most iconic urban landscapes of the era. These included the Gare Saint-Lazare, first opened in 1842 as one of the main railway stations in Paris;[1]: 92, 385 the Parc Monceau neighborhood in Paris, on grounds around the park which they purchased from the Orléans family in 1861;[2]: 156 the Rue de la République in Marseille, started by Jules Mirès and continued by the Pereires; and the holiday resort of Arcachon, developed from 1862.[1]: 390
The
Gallery
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Original station of the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain on Place de l'Europe , 1837
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Plaque in Saint-Germain-en-Laye highlighting Émile Pereire's role in developing the Cité Médicis neighborhood above the new railway in 1837
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Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris, the terminal of the Pereires' Chemins de fer de l'Ouest created in the early 1840s
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Toulouse-Matabiau station created by the Pereires for the Chemins de fer du Midi, 1857
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The Pereires' Grand Hôtel, now InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel (1862), with the Café de la Paix on the street level
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The rue Impériale (on the right), now Rue de la République in Marseille
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The former Pereire country house in Gretz-Armainvilliers
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Former headquarters of the Crédit Mobilier, now Hôtel Ritz Paris
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The Hotel Pereire on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
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The former Pereire Villa in Arcachon
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Burial place of the Pereire-Rodrigues family including Emile and Isaac Pereire, Montmartre Cemetery, Paris
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Memorial plaque on Place du Maréchal-Juin in Paris, named Place Pereire until 1973
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Pereire Metro Stationin Paris
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Pereire Levallois RER stationin Paris
See also
- Rothschild family
- Compagnie du chemin de fer Grand-Central de France
- Crédit Mobilier of America scandal
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Jean Autin (1984). Les frères Pereire : Le bonheur d'entreprendre. Paris: Perrin.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Helen M. Davies (2015). Emile and Isaac Pereire: Bankers, Socialists and Sephardic Jews in Nineteenth-Century France. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- ISBN 0-375-40883-5.
- ISBN 9780754660293.
- ^ French text: "Je voulais un instrument qui affranchît le pouvoir nouveau (le second Empire) de la tutelle où les financiers tiennent ordinairement les gouvernements ; tutelle d'autant plus dangereuse que je ressentais l'hostilité des grandes influences financières envers le pouvoir nouveau. Certainement, sans le concours du Crédit mobilier qui les a entraînés et forcés à marcher en avant, la politique de l'Empire, obligé de compter avec la Haute Banque, n'aurait pas été aussi hardie et aussi libre de son essor."
- ^ "La Villa Pereire (Péreire-Abatilles)". Arcachon Nostalgie.
Further reading
- Kurt Grunwald, "Europe's Railways and Jewish Enterprise: German Jews as Pioneers of Railway Promotion." Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 12.1 (1967): 163–209, on Rothschild and the Pereire brothers.
External links
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Pereire". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.