By Helen Davies
Why do the lives and careers of Emile Pereire (1800–75) and his brother Isaac (1806–1880) fascinate us? Certainly, their
achievements as railway entrepreneurs and bankers were extraordinary, but the
answer also lies in the place and the religion in which they were born, the
circumstances of their birth, and the dynamic era in which they lived. The
French Revolution determined the course of their lives.
The Pereires were Sephardic Jews, among the first generation of
Jews emancipated when, in January 1790, they became free and equal citizens of
France. Although the Revolution benefited them in many ways, it also helped to
bring Bordeaux, the city in which they were born, to its knees. This eighteenth-century
trading power-house lost the Atlantic slave trade on which its
vast mercantile success had depended, and it felt very deeply the impact of constant
war waged by France’s enemies, especially Britain.
The Bordeaux Sephardic community was, however, close-knit and
socially cohesive, providing support for those of its members who became
impoverished. The Pereires were beneficiaries of Sephardic welfare throughout
their childhood, raised in a single parent, observant, Jewish household by
their mother, a devout Sephardic woman.
Moving to Paris in the early 1820s as young adults they were
introduced to the economist and political philosopher, Claude-Henri de Rouvroy,
the Comte de Saint-Simon, a significant meeting which had an immediate impact
on Emile and Isaac. On Saint-Simon’s death they became ardent followers of the
movement which took his name, Saint-Simonianism. The Pereires contributed to a
system of ideas which focused upon the importance of technology to industry,
and which emphasised improvement of the lives of the poorest in society. Individuals
would be classed according to their capacities and compensated for their works,
according to the Saint-Simonians. The Pereires could thus be
described as “early socialists”.
Saint-Simonianism generated ideas and projects which became very
lucrative, and were to put the Pereires among the foremost capitalists in
Europe. The sheer scope and spectacular nature of their business enterprises
are sufficient to grasp our attention. Following their introduction of the
first passenger rail line to France (in 1837) they went on to establish some of
the most important railways in Europe, in Italy, Switzerland, Spain and the Austro-Hungarian
Empire as well as in France. To finance these enterprises they founded the first
investment bank of any size in Europe, the Crédit Mobilier, which they
replicated in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Rumania, Spain and the Ottoman
Empire. Their shipping company, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, carried
the first regular mail and
passenger services between France and North America. They were
significant urban developers, their Compagnie Immobilière constructing for the
Baron Georges Haussmann, the Prefect of the Seine, huge swathes of Paris’ right
bank. The Pereires also operated industrial laundries and companies
distributing gas lighting, providing horse-drawn public transport and taxi
services.
Their business interests generated enormous wealth and their style
of living was
commensurate with others of France’s grande bourgeoisie --- an elaborately decorated mansion on the rue
du Faubourg SaintHonoré; a château outside of Paris at Armainvilliers; a seaside
resort at Arcachon; extensive collections of paintings and sculpture;
extravagant entertainments. Their political association with and support for
the Emperor Napoléon III, who had come to power after a coup d’état in 1851, was crucial to their business success, a relationship
which had its murkier side. When the Crédit Mobilier failed in 1867, taking
with it the savings of many small shareholders, this exacerbated a view popular
in some circles that the brothers were corrupt, shady, buccaneers, intent on
making themselves wealthy at the expense of poorer people. The truth was much
more complex. Nevertheless, endless legal battles embroiled them.
Their personal story, while fascinating in its own right, also
shows the dynamic change in the French economy over this period. It highlights
the ideas which contributed to its shaping, and the equally radical transformation
of French society and politics.
