Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard was a French financier who was born in Moulins d'Antières at Cugand (Vendée) on October 11, 1770 and who died in London in October 1846.

Revolution (1787-1800)

The son of a paper mill owner, Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard received a basic education, joining a trading house in Nantes in 1787 as an employee. By the end of the Ancien Régime, the trading house was associated with Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 shipowners Baour et Balguerie.

Under the Directoire

French Directory

The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...

, the trading house enriched itself considerably through colonial trade and military supplies. It then controlled three trading houses in Brest, Nantes and Orleans, the bank of Gamba, Gay et compagnie in Antwerp as well as having large shareholdings in three companies in Paris (Girardot et compagnie, Rougemont et compagnie, Charlemagne et compagnie). It was also associated with three major suppliers: Vanlerberghe (wheat), the Michel brothers (military supplies) and Carvillon des Tillières et Roy (steel and wood).

In 1794 he married the daughter of Jean Baptiste Tébaud, a wealthy Nantes merchant. (His wife died in 1818, having borne him three children.)

In September 1798, Ouvrard won a six year contract for the provision of food to the Navy, representing a contract of 64 million francs. A few months later, he won a contract with the Spanish fleet stationed in Brest and then one to supply the army of Italy

Army of Italy (France)

The Army of Italy was a Field army of the French Army stationed on the Italian border and used for operations in Italy itself. Though it existed in some form in the 16th century through to the present, it is best known for its role during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic...

 in 1799. He rented the Château du Raincy

Château du Raincy

The Château du Raincy was constructed between 1643 and 1650 by Jacques Bordier, indendant des finances, on the site of a Benedectine priory on the road from Paris to Meaux, in the present-day commune of Le Raincy in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of France.-The Château:Louis Le Vau was put in...

 near Paris, which he subsequently bought in 1806.

Around 1799 he took as his mistress, Madame Tallien

Thérésa Tallien

Thérésa Cabarrus, Madame Tallien , was a French social figure during the Revolution. Later she became Princess of Chimay.-Early life:...

, daughter of Count Francois de Cabbarrus. Her family connections would prove useful to Ouvrard.

Ouvrard was arrested on January 27, 1800 on the orders of then First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, but a review of his accounts and contracts showed no irregularities. Ouvrard was released. He helped supply the army for its Marengo

Marengo

Marengo may refer to:* The Battle of Marengo, in 1800 in northern Italy* French ship Marengo* Chicken Marengo, a food dish* Marengo , a genus of jumping spiders* Marengo , Napoleon's horse...

 campaign.

The Napoleonic Era (1801-1815)

Ouvrard was one of the founders of the Compagnie des Négociants Réunis along with the banker Médard Desprez (1764–1842), Regent of the Bank of France

Banque de France

The Banque de France is the central bank of France; it is linked to the European Central Bank . Its main charge is to implement the interest rate policy of the European System of Central Banks...

. In exchange for a cash advance, the Company received valid obligations including monthly subsidies that Spain had to pay to France in implementing the Treaty of 22 June 1803. In 1804 the Company had obtained from Spain its monopoly of trade with Spanish America. However the resumption of war between France and England slowed the movement of vessels. In 1805 the Bank of France faced collapse; this potential financial disaster was averted on January 27, 1806, when Ouvrard agreed to guarantee loans against the gold from the Spanish South America colonies.

Ouvrard then entered a period of financial difficulties. He could not raise the acquisition price of the Château du Raincy. In 1809, he was imprisoned in Sainte-Pélagie

Sainte-Pélagie

Sainte-Pélagie was a prison in Paris from 1790 to 1895. It saw many famous prisoners during the French revolution, with Madame Roland and Grace Dalrymple Elliott being the only female prisoners. After the revolution, the Marquis de Sade was imprisoned here, as was the young mathematician Évariste...

 for unpaid debt and released three months later. Believing that only peace could bring maritime economic growth, he tried to negotiate a secret peace with England with the support of Louis Bonaparte and Joseph Fouché, which earned him three years in prison.

Glory and ruin (1815-1846)

At the end of June 1815, at the beginning of the Restoration, Ouvrard acquired (under the name of his brother-in-law, G.J. Tébaud) the pavilion of Jonchère located at Bougival

Bougival

Bougival is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center....

, known later as "Château de la Jonchère". He made many improvements to both the original building and its surroundings. In 1816, he acquired the Château de la Chaussée, not far from the pavilion of Jonchère.

Ouvrard played a large role in the economic recovery of France after the fall of the Empire. The Congress of Vienna

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

 in 1815 effectively forced France to pay 700 million francs to foreign powers, or 150 million per annum, to which had to be added the maintenance of 150,000 soldiers of the Allied armies that had occupied France for five years. In 1816, crops collapsed and the coffers of the kingdom were empty. The payments were suspended. The Duc de Richelieu

Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu

Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu was a prominent French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration...

, Prime Minister of Louis XVIII, found himself in front of the Chamber of Deputies

Chamber of Deputies of France

Chamber of Deputies was the name given to several parliamentary bodies in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the Lower chamber of the French Parliament, elected by census suffrage.*...

 (the famous Chambre introuvable

Chambre introuvable

La Chambre introuvable was the first Chamber of Deputies elected after the Second Bourbon Restoration in 1815. It was dominated by Ultra-royalists who completely refused to accept the results of the French Revolution...

) but found its quarrels and divisions made his task impossible. On the advice of Ouvrard, Richelieu created a 100 million pension that filled the coffers of the state. The payments were made and the threat that hung over France was lifted. With this payment, the Prime Minister put forward the departure of foreign troops expected in 1820. The French territory was released in 1818, after the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)

The Congress or Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle , held in the autumn of 1818, was primarily a meeting of the four allied powers Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia to decide the question of the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France and the nature of the modifications to be introduced in...

. The Duc de Richelieu visited Ouvrard's property and canceled its debt to the Treasury. Proof of the prestige which Ouvrard enjoyed at the time can be seen from the fact that both Louis XVIII

Louis XVIII of France

Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...

 and the man who would become Charles X

Charles X of France

Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...

 attended the wedding of Ouvrard's daughter Elisabeth to General de Rochechouart

Louis-Victor-Léon de Rochechouart

Louis-Victor-Léon de Rochechouart was a French general of the House of Rochechouart fighting in the Royalist, Imperial Russian and Bourbon armies of the Napoleonic Wars.- A peripatetic childhood :...

 (a nephew of Richlieu) on January 5, 1822. The following year, the purveyor financed the shipment of Spain, but was never repaid in spite of agreements signed with the Duke of Angoulême, who commanded the expedition. Placed in bankruptcy, he then lost his entire fortune, and was even imprisoned at the Conciergerie

Conciergerie

La Conciergerie is a former royal palace and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. It is part of the larger complex known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes...

 for corruption. Ouvrard was exonerated through the intervention of the Duke of Angoulême, but never recovered his fortune.

He died in London in 1846. He was survived by Dr Cabarrus, his illegitimate son by Madame Tallien, and his legitimate son, Julien Ouvrard.