Julius Jules Porges

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Mining magnate. Born in Prague, settled in Paris in the 1860s and became a leading diamond merchant. Both Alfred Beit and Sir Julius Wernher worked for him and were sent by him to Kimberley. He himself arrived there in 1875 and became a successful operator in shares, claims and stones, later extending operations (establishing the firm of H. Eckstein) to the Witwatersrand in 1887. In 1880 he returned to Europe. He retired from business in 1889, but long outlived both Beit and Wernher. Große Jüdische National-Biographie (S. Wininger) :

" He came to Paris in the 1860's and played a prominent role in the emerging South-African mining industry . He became one of the first mining tycoons, with Rhodes and Werner-Beith . Even as a naturalized French, he provided a lot of help to the Austrians much before the war. His Palace in Paris was the center of the fashionable Parisian Life. His wife, born Wodianer, assisted him in the achievement of their social obligations with an exceptional kindness. Mrs. Anna Porgès was the sister of Mrs. Ida Gutmann, widow of the industrialist Wilhelm v. Gutmann and Mrs. Pringsheim of Berlin. Jules Porgès was one of the most eminent art collectors in Paris. He was an exceptional expert in Dutch art masterpieces, which were represented, in his gallery of avenue Montaigne, by the beautiful and rare paintings of van Dyck, Franz Hals and Ruysdael. " (Neue Freie Preß. 4 Oct 1921)

Dictionary of South African Bibliography ( Vol. II, Pretoria, 1983) :

" Diamond merchant and mining entrepreneur, was of Jewish parentage and brought up in Prague, where his father was a master jeweller. During the 1860's, he settled in Paris, changed his name Julius (originally Yehuda) to Jules and quickly amassed a fortune as a diamond merchant. At the time of the Kimberley discoveries, Jules Porgès & Co, was the greatest and wealthiest diamond firm in the world, with a large stake in the diamond-cutting trade of Amsterdam. Porgès quick to recognize that the output from the Griqualand West mines would transform the whole nature and scale of the world market in precious stones, in 1873 sent Alfred Beit and Julius Wernher to South Africa as the firm's representatives, with instructions to report regularly on new discoveries. Three years later, Porgès himself arrived in Kimberley, immediately becoming a major figure in the local gem stone market as well as in the buying and selling of digger's claims. He thus played the complex , double role of producer and merchant of diamonds. At first, his interests extended to all four of the principal mines (De Beers, Bultfontein, Dutoitspan, and Kimberley), but by 1879 he had come to concentrate increasingly on the Kimberley mine, setting up a subsidiary to control it, the Compagnie Française de Diamant du Cap de Bonne Espérance, which had an initial capital of fourteen million francs divided in 500 francs shares. Within two years, the French company was paying out dividends of eighty francs per share. Through Beit, Porgès became a close business associate of C.J. Rhodes, who eventually induced him to persuade the French shareholders to dispose of their interests to the new De Beers combine. In this way, Porgès became a leading figure in the amalgamation movement, which culminated in August 1887, when a syndicate, formed by the Rothschilds, advanced the sum of £1,400,000 for the purchase of the French shares. Porgès was related to Rudolphe Kann, a famous financier of Paris, and through him succeeded in interesting the Rothschilds, who provided the capital that Rhodes needed to buy Kimberley Central shares. Though Beit is usually credited with raising money that brought Barney Barnato to terms, it was in fact Porgès who was responsible. Meanwhile, Porgès had returned to Europe in 1880, but revisited South Africa after the opening-up of the Witwatersand gold fields. In association with Beit and Wernher, but also making much use of the services of Hermann Eckstein and Eduard Lippert, Porgès acquired stakes in many mining properties in and around Johannesburg. He also was the founder of the famous mining and financial group known as the 'Corner House' (their offices were erected on a corner at the site of Market Square, Johannesburg). In 1890, he retired from South African business, most of his widespread interests being taken over by the newly established firm of Wernher, Beit & Co. Porgès was a man of great elegance and charm and also one of the shrewdest of businessmen. He shunned publicity and there were no announcements of his retirement, or farewell speeches. South African history scarcely mentions him, and there is no biography or painted portrait of him. Yet he had a profound influence on the affairs of the Transvaal Republic and was the founder of the firm which eventually became the Central Mining & Investment Corporation of London and Johannesburg. A photograph of him appears in Cartwright (infra).

P. H. EMDEN, Randlords, London, 1935; - A.P. CARTWRIGHT, The Corner House : the early history of Johannesburg. Jbg 1965