Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki was an important politician of the first half of the 19th century in the partitioned Poland

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

. He was a prince

The Princely Houses of Poland

The Princely Houses of Poland differed from other princely houses in Europe. Most importantly, Polish nobility could not be granted nobility titles by the Polish kings in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...

and minister

Minister (government)

A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

of the treasury

Treasury

A treasury is either*A government department related to finance and taxation.*A place where currency or precious items is/are kept....

in the Congress Kingdom of Poland

Congress Poland

The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...

. He is known as one of the prominent economists and financiers of his era. He was nicknamed "Small Prince" because of his height.

Biography

Franciszek was born to Genowefa Olizar-Wołczkiewicz and Franciszek Drucki-Lubecki of the Drucki-Lubecki aristocratic family http://genealog.home.pl/gd/szablony/rodzina.php?lang=en&id=00291 of Princes of Lubecz

Liubech

Liubech or Lyubech is a small ancient town connected with many important events since the times of the Kievan Rus'. It is currently a small settlement located in Ripky Raion, in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine...

near Druck :pl:Druccy-Lubeccy in Pohost Zahorodzki in Polesie on 4 September 1778. After graduation from an infantry cadet

Cadet

A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...

school he joined the Russian military in 1794 and remained in service until 1800. He served under the command of Alexander Suvorov

Alexander Suvorov

Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov , Count Suvorov of Rymnik, Prince in Italy, Count of the Holy Roman Empire , was the fourth and last generalissimo of the Russian Empire.One of the few great generals in history who never lost a battle along with the likes of Alexander...

and participated in his campaigns in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. Then he became the Marshal of Nobility

Marshal of Nobility

Marshal of Nobility was an elected position in Russian local self-government prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.- History :Nobility of each province formed a corporation, Noble Society , governed by the Assembly of Nobility with an elected Marshal of Nobility at its head...

of Grodno gubernia.

From 1813 to 1815 he was the member of the High Provisional Council (Rada Najwyższa Tymczasowa) of the Duchy of Warsaw

Duchy of Warsaw

The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...

. He supported the peaceful resolution of the conflict with Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

and supported Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

, who he thought was liberal enough to support extended Polish autonomy. In 1816 he became the Governor General of Grodno gunernia and a member of the commission for settling the financial accounts between Kingdom of Poland and Russian Empire. He organised a campaign for the introduction of foreign investors, professionals and workers into Poland. In 1816, as a governor, he issued a set of conditions for the settlement of "useful foreigners" in the Congress Kingdom of Poland. City of Łódź was one that greatly benefited from his policies, becoming an important textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

center http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0816615616&id=IPzZxTbqpoYC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=Drucki-Lubecki&sig=qnXsngv7jUoCGjsyZDIGw7QsXCw http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0253216281&id=lPSSMhdW_bQC&pg=PA5&lpg=PA5&dq=Drucki-Lubecki&sig=AEI813iIq2LtOEMa5-b7fOU9HPE.

On 20 June 1820 he married Maria Scipio del Campo. They had two daughters: Tekla Drucka-Lubecka and Genowefa Drucka-Lubecka.

From 1821 to 1830 he was the minister of Treasure in the Kingdom of Poland. From 1824 he reformed the mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

and ironworks

Ironworks

An ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...

industries. His policies significantly improved the budget

Budget

A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...

and treasury of the Kingdom: he introduced many saving policies, improved tax collection, introduced new indirect tax

Indirect tax

The term indirect tax has more than one meaning.In the colloquial sense, an indirect tax is a tax collected by an intermediary from the person who bears the ultimate economic burden of the tax...

es and expanded the national monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

on salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

and tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

. He eliminated the budgetary deficit and using his connections in Russia he eliminated many tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

s between the Kingdom of Poland and proper Russian Empire. This has improved the Polish exports eastwards. He also protected new industries from western import

Import

The term import is derived from the conceptual meaning as to bring in the goods and services into the port of a country. The buyer of such goods and services is referred to an "importer" who is based in the country of import whereas the overseas based seller is referred to as an "exporter". Thus...

, especially from Germany, which led to a tariff war with Prussia. He founded the National Bank of Poland

National Bank of Poland

Narodowy Bank Polski is the central bank of Poland. It controls the issuing of Poland's currency, the złoty. The Bank is headquartered in Warsaw, and has branches in every major Polish town...

in 1828 http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415231108&id=W2UlvOPeUDEC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=Drucki-Lubecki&sig=th0igAxa0bfjPNMuput7P3tz2Cs, he was also the initiator of the Land Credit Society (Towarzystwo Kredytowe Ziemskie). Drucki was convinced of harmfulness of laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....

policies http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9639241180&id=ieF7NYaEqQYC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&vq=Drucki&dq=Franciszek+Ksawery+Drucki-Lubecki&sig=IOtgFsDbS5jnYWWExOOy9vP2fD8 and supported state interventionism.

He represented the political faction known as 'Conciliators', which believed that Polish independence may come only through economic growth and diplomacy, not military adventures http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0231128193&id=EBpghdZeIwAC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&vq=Drucki&dq=Franciszek+Ksawery+Drucki-Lubecki&sig=evgudzXhDVJ3utHWTcGhE2yBqsQ http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0198221525&id=40KbWNve4XkC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=Drucki-Lubecki&sig=xF5LpgcWUYE6W7E487S0xJn8ovE. However the Conciliators were handicapped not only by their domestic opponents, the 'Insurrectionist' faction, but by the Russian imperial authorities themselves who rarely saw the need to compromise with a defeated, weak enemy http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0231128193&id=EBpghdZeIwAC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA34&vq=Drucki&dq=Franciszek+Ksawery+Drucki-Lubecki&sig=_oaIpMA6sAdOvGjoArBJibWhx3o. In the second half of the 19th century such line of thought would be continued by the positivists

Positivism in Poland

Positivism in Poland was a socio-cultural movement that defined progressive thought in literature and social sciences of Partitioned Poland following the suppression of the 1863 January Uprising against the occupying army of Imperial Russia...

, and later by the endecja
Endecja
National Democracy was a Polish right-wing nationalist political movement active from the latter 19th century to the end of the Second Polish Republic in 1939. A founder and principal ideologue was Roman Dmowski...

movement. Therefore Drucki opposed the November Uprising

November Uprising

The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...

against the Russia, which he deemed as folly and a dangerous gambit which would lose all that has been achieved over the past decade. During the uprising he attempted to negotiate with Russian authorities, but to no avail. After the defeat of the uprising - which, incidentally, was sponsored by money Drucki gathered in the nation's treasury - he left Poland but still remained in the Polish government, becoming a member of the new, now much more Russian controlled, National Council.

Since December 1830 he worked in Saint Petersburg on the legal reform for Poland. Since 1832 he became a member of State Council of Imperial Russia

State Council of Imperial Russia

The State Council was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia.-18th century:Early Tsars' Councils were small and dealt primarily with the external politics....

. In 1834 he worked on settling the financial accounts between Russia and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. After 1830 never returned to Poland.

He died on 23 May 1846 in Saint Petersburg.

Ksawera quarter in Będzin

Bedzin

Będzin is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Czarna Przemsza river , the city borders the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metro area with a population of about 2 million.It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since its...

is named after him. There is also a non-governmental think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

in Poland, dedicated to the worlds of business and academics: Fundacja Instytut Analiz Politycznych im. ks. X. Druckiego-Lubeckiego.

Honours and awards

In 1816, Franciszek was awarded the Polish Order of the White Eagle, in 1785 Knight of the Order of St. Stanislaus and, in 1815, he was awarded the Russian Order of St. Vladimir

Order of St. Vladimir

The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....

External links

Short bio Longer bio LUBECKI-DRUCKI FRANCISZEK KSAWERY PWN Encyclopedia entry Człowiek, który umiał robić z Rosją interesy (The man who knew how to do business with Russia) Zabić ministra skarbu (Kill the treasure minister) by Leszek Biernacki

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Biography

Honours and awards

See also

Further reading

External links