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Paris-Duvernay

Name: Joseph Paris-Duverney

Achievements: Financial advice to French government

Born: April 9, 1684; Moras, Dauphine, France

Died: July 17, 1770; Paris, France (Aged 87)

Field & Discipline: Finance; Financier

Language: French

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Antoine; Claude la Montagne; Jean Montmartel

Spouse: Niece (daughter of Antoine)

Children: None

Education: Unknown

Major Work:

“Examen du livre intitute: Reflexions politiquessur les finances et le commerce, par de Tott” (1740)

Life & Times:

Paris-Duverney was the son of a poor innkeeper in the Dauphine; he and his three brothers all worked as pot boys at the inn. They escaped from this life by acting as procurers for commissar of the army raised to fight in Italy who had been caught short and had to find supplies urgently. During a famine in the Dauphine, the brothers obtained provisions in Burgundy but they were accused of running a monopoly and had to flee to Paris.

Paris-Duverney joined the French Guard and his brothers obtained posts in the offices of the commissioner of the army of Italy. Duverney-Paris left the Guard and joined his brothers who applied themselves to profit from the many wars in which France was engaged during the seventeenth century. Whenever war seemed inevitable, they bought all the materials and food they could find and then offered themselves as suppliers to the military administration.

They became established military suppliers, with their spies among foreign powers and in the French government who informed them when another crisis was brewing so they could stock up again ahead of their rivals. All the brothers managed their profits well and became wealthy private bankers. They won a contract to administer the inspection of individual tax accounts which gave them an intimate and detailed knowledge of French finances.

In 1718 Marc Rene d’Argenson was Minister of Finance and he became very jealous of the influence of  [rival of] Law*, the Scottish financier, who had set up a sensationally successful company in Paris based on his own financial system and whose influence at court appeared invincible. D’Argenson persuaded the Paris brothers to set up a rival company which they called the Anti-System.

The brothers had secured leases for tax collecting in return for payment to the government of a large annual sum. They were very secretive and the leases were held in the name of d’Argenson’s valet. They used the leases to establish their Anti-System company. The shares were to be paid for in state bonds, which – as discredited government obligations – stood at a heavy discount and would bear an interest.

The total amount of the share capital was offered by the promoters as security for the annual payment  under the lease and the books were open to public. The company proved popular with the public and the brothers presented a memorandum to the Regent concerning their doubts about Law’s system.

Law saw the memorandum, bought the tax leases for his own company, and had the Paris brothers exiled to the Dauphine. The Anti-System was overthrown and the Paris brothers retired to their various country estates.

They were hit again when Law, who was worried about the amount of paper money in circulation, managed to get an edict passed restricting the amount  of gold and silver which could be held. As a result, the Paris brothers lost a huge amount of gold to the Treasury.

After Law’s fall, they returned to the capital and were once more in favor. They were put in charge of the liquidation of Law’s company in 1721 and all four brothers were given the title Intendant of Finances.

Paris-Duverney was put in charge of measures taken to combat the spread of “la peste” in the Midi. He was made adviser to the Minister of War and in 1724 he was confirmed as Guard of the Treasury. He had financial interests in many spheres and controlled the lumber trade within France.

His influence even extended to foreign affairs. He had lent money to the dethroned King Stanislaus of Poland and he suggested to the Marquise de Prie that Stanislaus’s daughter, Marie Leczinska, would make an ideal bride for the young French king. The Marquise de Prie was the Duke of Bourbon’s mistress. The marriage was duly arranged, the Bourbon interest was enhanced at court, and  Paris-Duverney was  appointed as Marie’s private secretary.

Many people were jealous of the Paris brothers and they were seen as symbols of speculation. In 1726 they had to flee Paris. Paris-Duverney went to a village near Langres where a loyal friend hid him but he was arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille until 1728.

He recovered his finances and his position and when Madame [helped by] de Pompadour* became the mistress of Louis XV in 1745, Paris-Duverney was again at the centre of court affairs because Pompadour was the daughter of Francois Poisson, an employee of the Paris brothers. It was even rumored that Paris-Duverney was Pompadour’s true father. He supervised her financial affairs, and loaned her big sums.

He was made First Intendant with the title of Councillor of State.  He did not want a title but he did want the king to visit the military academy he established for dPompadour in 1751.

This was eventually brought about by the machinations of [protege was] Beaumarchais*, who was a favorite with the king’s daughters and who became a protegee of Paris-Duverney and later a well-known playwright.

During the Seven Years’ War when France and Austria were opposed by the Protestant powers of England and Prussia, Paris-Duverney attempted to interfere with the conduct of the war and the appointment of certain field marshals. When the French armies collapsed, his prestige suffered and he became known as the ‘flour-general’.

Before he died at the age of eighty-seven in 1770, Parris-Duverney predicted that there would be a revolution in France because the continual burden of taxes on the poor had left them with nothing.

Assessment: Paris-Duverney was one of the most influential financiers of his time.

Oneliner: Joseph Paris-Duvernay, eighteenth-century wheeler-dealer

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