Pereire, Jacob-Émile

(1800-1875)

   businessman

   Born in bordeaux, Jacob-Émile Pereire came to Paris in 1822 and worked at first as an exchange broker, while adhering for a time to the ideas of henri de saint-simon and contributing to the Saint-Simonian journals Globe and National. After dedicating himself to the construction, development, and administration of the first French railroad lines (Paris-Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1835; North, Lyon, and Midi lines), he formed a company for long-term loans to industries, the Crédit mobilier, an innovation that brought him into competition with the Rothschild family. Shortly after, Pereire obtained control of the Compagnie Générale Maritime, which he transformed into the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. A deputy from 1863 to 1869, he lost his role as a business leader after the failure and liquidation of the Crédit Mobilier, which had financed much of the industrial development during the second empire.