Military entrepreneurs and the development of the French economy in the eighteenth century

Abstract

In the eighteenth century, a few military entrepreneurs with connections to the secretary of state of the navy developed large companies in order to meet the needs of the French state, which included a naval fleet fit to compete with its enemies. One of these entrepreneurs was Babaud de la Chaussade. While initially specialising in timber supply, his enterprise came to monopolise anchor manufacturing and owned one of the largest iron foundries in France. For over 30 years, Babaud’s enterprise had a presence in all the naval and French East India Company markets for iron products. The enterprise was bought by the French state at the end of the eighteenth century and survived until the end of the twentieth century.

Keywords:

• France
• military entrepreneurs
• navy
• state privileges
• timber
• iron works
• anchors

Notes

1. Meyer and Bromley, “La seconde guerre de cent ans,” 153.

2. Pritchard, Louis XV’s Navy, 160.

3. Horn, “Economic Development,” 237.

4. Bamford, Privilege and Profit.

5. Plouviez, La Marine française et ses réseaux, 143.

6. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 8.

7. Ibid., 16. At the time of the wedding Jacqueline was aged 15 and Pierre 28.

8. Acerra, Rochefort et la construction, 768. Notarial contracts of August 22, 1728 and October 30, 1733.

9. Pourchasse, La France et le commerce du nord, 229.

10. Charnoz, “Jean Babaud et le flottage des bois,” 67–88.

11. Berthiau, “Un grand entrepreneur,” 20.

12. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 72.

13. Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine, B2 308.

14. Pourchasse, Le commerce du Nord.

15. The timber from Lorraine had to be transported along the Rhine to the North Sea coast and therefore needed the support of the Dutch to be transported to France.

16. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 19. In 1733, Jean Babaud owned 50% of the shares, Pierre Babaud 30% and Jacques Masson 20%. Pierre Babaud married Jacques Masson’s daughter and became a partner in the enterprise belonging his brother Jean Babaud and Jacques Masson. In September 1738, the associates gave a proxy to Pierre-François Goossens, Jean’s chief assistant, to manage their affairs. Jean Babaud died a week later. In 1739, Jacques Masson, who had been a widower since 1732, married Jean Babaud’s widow, Marie Boesnier.

17. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 72–3.

18. Manceron, “Les Michel de Tharon et de Grilleau,” 81–108.

19. Service Historique de la Défense, Rochefort, 5 E² 18–20.

20. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 82.

21. Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine, B2 352, January‒June 1756.

22. Richard, Noblesse d’affaires, 148–54.

23. Bosher, “Financing the French navy,” 115–33. In 1758, Berryer mentioned ‘a good delivery of Messrs Michel Beaujon & Goossens under the name of Cohadon’. Gabriel Michel, esquire, one of the East India Company’s directors, in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, Jean-Nicolas Beaujon, who lived at the Tuileries Palace in Paris, and Pierre-François Goossens, a banker, who lived at the Place des Victoires in Paris.

24. Riksarkivet, Stockholm, Gallica, 418.

25. Bamford, Forest and French Sea Power, 145.

26. Villiers, Marine royale, corsaires et trafic, 519.

27. Archives Nationales, Paris, B1 73, fol. 251–2, B1 74, fol. 193–4 and 282–5.

28. Buist, At spes non fracta, 197.

29. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 88.

30. Plouviez, La Marine française et ses réseaux, 330.

31. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 91.

32. Plouviez, La Marine française et ses réseaux, 330.

33. Plouviez, De la terre à la mer, 677; Gay, “Forger des ancres pour la Marine,” 31–50.

34. Gay, Six millénaires d’histoire des ancres, 150.

35. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 93.

36. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 104.

37. Plouviez, De la terre à la mer, 678.

38. Berthiau, “Un grand entrepreneur,” 22.

39. Gay, Six millénaires, 152.

40. Berthiau, “Un grand entrepreneur,” 22.

41. Plouviez, De la terre à la mer, 679.

42. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 89.

43. Ferchault de Réaumur, Fabrique des ancres.

44. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 271.

45. Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine, B1 73, folio 110.

46. Berthiau, “Un grand entrepreneur,” 25.

47. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 273.

48. Ibid., 96.

49. Gay, Six millénaires, 152 (Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine, B2 304 folio 32).

50. Gille, Les origines de la grande industrie métallurgique, 131.

51. Richard, Noblesse d’affaires, 89.

52. Archives Nationales Marine B3 355 Mémoire du sieur Babaud au sujet du bois d’Alsace.

53. Le Bouëdec, Les approvisionnements de la Compagnie des Indes, 173.

54. Berthiau, “Pierre Babaud de la Chaussade,” 11.

55. Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine B2 304, folio 126; Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 178.

56. Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine B3 385, f. 105, 195–6.

57. Service Historique de la Défense Lorient 1P4 f. 110–11.

58. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 179.

59. Le Bouëdec, Les approvisionnements, 175.

60. Ibid., 167.

61. Pourchasse, La France et le commerce du nord, 174.

62. Berthiau, “Pierre Babaud,” 15.

63. Ibid., 15, Letter of April 10, 1766.

64. Ibid., 15, Letter of April 26, 1766.

65. Service Historique de la Défense Lorient, September 9, 1766.

66. Archives Nationales, Marine B2 341 folio 471 et 539.

67. Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine, B2 356 f. 440.

68. Berthiau, “Un grand entrepreneur,” 23.

69. Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine F 12 1316, Letter from Babaud de la Chaussade, Guérigny, December 6, 1763.

70. Bamford, Privilege and Profit, 237.

71. Plouviez, “Babaud de la Chaussade,” 145–53.