Antoine Crozat (1655-1738)

Antoine Crozat (1655-1738)

Do you know what Louisiana, the Ritz hotel, the Elysée Palace, the Picardy Canal and the Hermitage Museum have in common? A man and his millions: Antoine Crozat (1655-1738). However, it is a safe bet that unless you are a fan of antique furniture or an expert in 17th century finance (or both), the honorable reader of this article will not know this name.

It must be said that our hero has nothing to seduce. Lover of embezzlement and illicit trafficking, slave trader, hard with the weak – he gives to the needy that the king asks him to rescue food that even the dogs would not want – and sweet in front of the powerful, he endorses with brilliant success the role of upstart.

Almost institutional embezzlement

However, nothing predestined Antoine Crozat to such success. His contemporaries spoke at leisure about the baseness of his origins, accusing him of being the son sometimes of a beadle, sometimes of a coachman. Reality is more complex. Admittedly, the grandfather of Crozat, a modest sock merchant from Albi, probably did not expect to see his descendants join the best nobility in the kingdom.

But it would be a mistake to make the ascent of this Toulousain an aberration. The father of our hero, also named Antoine, manages in a few years to become one of the most prosperous merchants in Toulouse. Anxious to establish his son, he introduced him very early to the mysteries of his financial operations.

In 1672, at barely sixteen years old, Antoine II was already designated as a “banker”. The apprenticeship continued in Paris with one of the most powerful men of the time, Pierre-Louis Reich de Pennautier. Treasurer general of the Stock Exchange of the States of Languedoc and receiver general of the Clergy of France, this close friend of Colbert manages the most considerable financial flows of the kingdom.

In the shadow of his Pygmalion, Crozat discovers the handling of money and men; intrigues, hidden secrets, power struggles, latent conflicts and those that come to light. With audacity and intrigue, the apprentice climbed the ladder, until ousting the right arm of Pennautier.

In 1689, the ambitious man decided to leave his mentor to become receiver general of the generality of Bordeaux. At 34, here he is in the big leagues. The charge made him one of the most important fundraisers in the kingdom.

Unable to set up an effective tax administration, the State had to privatize the collection of taxes from tax collectors (taille, taillon, etc.) and farmers general (gabelle, etc.). Each year that he is ex officio, the Toulousain therefore signs a contract with the power by which he undertakes to provide him with an agreed sum, which he then undertakes to recover.

Antoine Crozat (1655-1738)

The office is risky because ruin constantly threatens the financier, but eminently profitable for those who know how to do it. Because, although this is strictly prohibited, Crozat and his cronies can invest these tons of cold hard cash in the short term and with discretion in high-profit investments, while delaying the due date of the final payment as much as possible. Supreme paradox, these eminently lucrative investments are often nothing more than… state investments, extraordinary business.

The system is crooked, everyone knows it, but no one wants to denounce it. While making fun of the handlers of public funds, the big ones, even in the king's entourage, lent their money to financiers against juicy interest, passing as it should through nominees (Crozat notably resorts to a doctor in theology of the Sorbonne).

The creation of shell companies (with the complicity of the authorities)

Year after year, Crozat's fortune increases. His influence too. He attracted the attention of ministers, participated in the financing of the war of the League of Augsburg and provided valuable assistance to court figures.

In 1698, he was one of the founders of the Royal South Sea Company. Officially, the company is responsible for discovering desert islands and other forgotten lands "from the Strait of Magellan to Chile".

The real goal is quite different. With the support of power, Crozat and his associates intend to use their privilege to engage in interloping, this contraband trade consisting in selling various products in Spanish territories to make money. A simple mechanism, but strictly prohibited by Madrid, which reserves traffic with its colonies to its fellow citizens.

As they approach major American cities, French ships invoke urgent needs for repairs to enter ports. We then buy the silence of the guards to sell off some of the holds loaded with canvas, sheets, brocades, pewter, hardware and lace before repeating the operation at the next stopover.

While the French state is pleased with this stratagem, Crozat is rubbing his hands even more. Because the millions who land in French ports on the return of his ships do not win all the royal coffers. In secret, the financier speculates on the currency, selling part of the loot on the black market.

A fortune in the shadow of slave debt

Just a month after joining the Compagnie de la mer du Sud, Crozat signed the founding act of the Compagnie de Saint- Domingue with a view to developing the cultivation of sugar cane on the island. Again, this is an avowed goal.

By the admission of those concerned, the real purpose of the company is to engage there also in underworld trade with Cuba and Mexico, in particular to engage in stealth trafficking, that is to say clandestine traffic of slaves. The financier is still in its infancy in the slave trade. The rise to the throne of Spain of a grandson of Louis XIV, in 1700, allows him to obtain the Asiento, that is to say the monopoly of the supply of slaves to all the colonies. Spanish coins, or 48,000 "Indian coins" in ten years.

Of course, Crozat is aware of the atrocities of the trade: he and his associates are counting on a mortality rate of up to 40%. But the case is legal and constitutes a considerable windfall. Because, paradoxically, the slave trade is for him a screen and slaves a commodity. The sale of human beings is not profitable as such: Crozat intended above all to take advantage of this legal gateway to the Spanish ports to practice underworld trade there on a scale never before achieved.

The most powerful man in France… and in America

In 1712, Louis XIV, embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession and unable to meet the needs of his colonies, entrusted the finance the commercial monopoly over Louisiana, then as big as France. Crozat is told of the fabulous wealth of the territory to encourage him to swallow up his fortune there.

When Louis XIV died in 1715, Crozat believed himself to be the most powerful man in France. His fortune is then estimated at 20 million pounds, that is to say the equivalent of about thirty duchies, or the salary of more than 200,000 laborers. Admittedly, the end of the War of the Spanish Succession sealed the fate of the Asiento company, which came under English control. But after all, the rest of his business is prospering and he enjoys the support of the new master of the kingdom, Philippe d'Orléans. Princes, marshals, council members, prominent and future mistresses know that his purse is open to them.

The state of grace, however, will not last long. Emerging bloodless from a decade of conflict, France is on the verge of bankruptcy. The Regent's advisers suggested taking the money where it was, that is to say from Crozat and his cronies. On March 12, 1716, a Chamber of Justice was established. On November 28, Crozat is fixed on his fate: here he is sentenced to a colossal tax of 6,600,000 pounds, the heaviest ever pronounced. Thanks to various intrigues – and in particular the retrocession of Louisiana, the financier nevertheless manages to save part of his fortune.

After having triumphed over his new rival, John Law, by apparently participating actively in the failure of his System, Crozat devoted the last years of his life to establishing his family. He marries his sons to the most prestigious families in France, builds the Picardy canal to which he will give his name for a while... and tries to get his hands on the current Élysée Palace, built by his son-in-law with his money. In 1738, at the age of 83, Crozat breathed his last in his hotel on Place Vendôme, the current Ritz. His name will soon be forgotten.


Next episode Open letter to Louis XIVSee the full versionPublished or updated on: 2021-06-04 15:57:23I subscribe to the friends of Herodote.netOnly 20/year!