Jean Pellet

Jean Pellet was born in 1694 in Bordeaux, France in a bourgeoisie family involved in trade. His father earned a small fortune trading in Martinique, and was able to provide his sons with a sizeable capital to start their business.

In 1717 Pellet visited the West Indies for the first time and there he married a Creole woman, and returned to Bordeaux in 1718. The next year he established a trading firm in partnership with his brother, and became known as successful speculator and supplier of trading ships at his native town. Pellet’s trading business grew as he progressed from an ordinary seller of merchandise to an agent of a Spanish company, La Compagnie de Caraque, which imported cocoa from Venezuela to sell in France. Having gained sufficient capital, he acquired three or four ships of his own and expanded his trading activities to include the ports of Hamburg, Amsterdam, Cork, and Bilbao.

As a shrewd businessman, Pellet shipped manufactured goods and foodstuffs that arrived in the West Indies when agricultural products grown there were being harvested. At harvest time, when West Indians had a surplus, he purchased their products at low prices and then sold it at higher prices in Europe. In this way, by 1733 he had amassed capital of 300,000 livres.

He used the wealth acquired in trade and speculation with colonies to buy land and rise socially to the class of landed gentry and minor nobility which held top of the social hierarchy. In 1735 he bought the office of secretary to the king. In the following period he purchased properties bearing noble titles, including the comte de Talmont. By 1768, his wealth was worth 1,930,000 livres.

He tried to enter into a class of major nobility by devising a scheme which presented his family as a forgotten branch of the Narbonne lineage but was ridiculed.