Isaac Pereire

Officier de la Légion d'honneur (août 1864)

French financier; born Nov. 25, 1806, at Bordeaux; died July 12, 1880, at Armanvilliers; grandson of Jacob Rodrigues Pereire. While still young he lost his father, and in 1823 went to Paris as employee in a bank. From this time he and his brother Emile were inseparable. Through Olinde-Rodrigues, a relative and the foremost pupil of St. Simon, the two brothers were introduced to Rodrigues' followers and became at once enthusiastic supporters of St.-Simonism, making active propaganda, together with Enfantin, Michel Chevalier, Eugène Rodrigues, Duveyrier, and others. The brothers then took up journalism, Isaac becoming collaborator on the "Globe," "Temps," "Journal des Débats," etc.

In 1835, amid great financial difficulties, Pereire and his brother Emile built the first railway in France, that from Paris to St.-Germain; in 1836 they constructed the Paris-Versailles line, and in 1845 the Chemin de Fer du Nord. In 1852 the two brothers founded, not without reference to St.-Simonistic ideas, the Société Générale du Crédit Mobilier, which had for its object the carrying out of great undertakings by means of the union of small capitalists, thereby allowing the latter to share in the profits. This institution undertook the building of several large railways in France, Switzerland, Russia, and Spain, and founded several gas and omnibus companies. Although the Crédit Mobilier, which caused radical changes in the entire financial market, was obliged to liquidate in 1867, Isaac and Emile Pereire remained prominent financiers. Both, together with Isaac's son Eugène, were returned to the Corps Législatif in 1863.

Isaac, who was made a knight of the Legion of Honor, was distinguished for his philanthropy. In 1880 he founded a prize of 100,000 francs, divided into four series, for the best works on social economics. Although he remained true to the religion of his fathers, he used his influence in favor of the Roman Catholic Church, and voted in the Chamber for the maintenance of the temporal power of the pope.

From 1876 to 1880 Pereire was the owner of the Paris daily "La Liberté," in which he developed his political and industrial program. Several of his studies have been collected in pamphlet form under the titles "Politique Industrielle," "Politique Financière," "Conversion et Amortissement," and "Questions des Chemins de Fer." He was, besides, the author of the following works: "Leçons sur l'Industrie et les Finances, Prononcées à la Salle de l'Athenée," Paris, 1832; "Le Rôle de la Banque de France et l'Organisation du Crédit en France," ib. 1864; "Principes de la Constitution des Banques," ib. 1865; "La Question Religieuse," ib. (German transl. by H. Deutsch, Vienna, 1879).

Bibliography: H. Deutsch, Die Religiöse Frage von I. Pereire, Preface; Men of the Time, 8th ed., p. 761; Allg. Zeit. des Jud. xliv. 471. Jacob Rodrigues Pereire:

GEDCOM Note

Député de l'Aude (1869-1870), Député des Pyrénées-Orientales (1863-1869)