The “Lavalette Affair:” Jesuits and Money in the French Atlantic By Andrew Dial A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of a Doctorate in History Department of History and Classical Studies Faculty of Arts McGill University Montréal ©Andrew Dial, 2018 1 Abstract The “Lavalette Affair” rocked Paris in the spring of 1761. Caused by a Jesuit priest on Martinique, Fr. Antoine Lavalette, it was the first of several colonial scandals to hit the French public sphere in the wake of the Seven Years War and the spark which led to the Jesuits’ 1764 expulsion from France. During the interwar years, Lavalette had created a currency exchange network for colonial subjects looking to transfer their money back to France without losing value from the lopsided transatlantic exchange rate. This network collapsed at the onset of the war, leading his creditors to seek redress from the French courts. This dissertation contextualiZes Lavalette’s activities within the Society of Jesus’ global presence to determine how his activities fit the acceptable actions for priests. It examines how Lavalette used transatlantic flows of commodities and the language of credit to borrow over 2 million livres. This research discusses how Lavalette’s creditors attempted to treat the Society of Jesus as a merchant house (société) under the jurisdiction of merchant courts. Finally, this thesis recounts Lavalette’s efforts to stay afloat during the Seven Years War and the ultimately successful efforts of the Jesuit superiors to shut him down. Résumé L’« affaire Lavalette » a frappé Paris pendant l’été 1761. Causée par le père Antoine Lavalette, un prêtre Jésuite à la Martinique, il s’agit du premier d’une série de scandales coloniaux arrivant à Paris à la fin de la Guerre de Sept Ans et menant ultimement à l’expulsion des Jésuites de France en 1764. Avant la guerre, Lavalette avait créé un réseau d’échanges de capitaux pour des sujets colonials qui avaient besoin d’envoyer de l’argent en France. Le réseau s’effendre au commencement de la guerre menant ses créanciers à chercher justice dans un procès auprès de la juridiction consulaire. Cette thèse aborde des activités commerciales de Lavalette dans le contexte globale de la Compagnie de Jésus afin d’interroger la teneur de ces activités commerciales considérés comme acceptables pour les ecclésiastiques. Elle examine comment Lavalette a utilisé la circulation des denrées et le langage du « crédit » afin d’emprunter plus de 2 millions de livres. Cette recherche discoute aussi les efforts des créanciers afin de traiter la Société de Jésus comme une société des marchands ainsi sujette à la juridiction consulaire. Finalement, cette thèse raconte les efforts de Lavalette pour maintenir sa solvabilité pendant la Guerre de Sept Ans ansi que la victoire de ses supérieurs Jésuites afin de mettre fin à ses activités commerciales. 2 Table of Contents Table of Figures & Tables ............................................................................................................ 4 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1: How to Fund a Mission ........................................................................................... 26 Chapter 2: The Martinique Mission ......................................................................................... 66 Chapter 3: The Making of a Procurator ................................................................................... 98 Chapter 4: Sugar and Gold ...................................................................................................... 130 Chapter 5: Cultivating Crédit .................................................................................................. 160 Chapter 6: How not to respond to a faillite ............................................................................ 189 Chapter 7: Société, Solidité, Scandale ..................................................................................... 223 Chapter 8: “Je vivrai profitte de cette guerre” ...................................................................... 260 Chapter 9: Final Reckoning ..................................................................................................... 277 Epilogue ..................................................................................................................................... 313 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 318 3 Table of Figures & Tables Figures Figure 2.3 Jesuit missionaries in the French Caribbean, 1658-1761………………………...87 Figure 2.4 Metropolitan Mission Revenue, 1670-1760…………………………………...…..94 Figure 3.1 Map of southeastern France with cities important to Lavalette……………….106 Tables Table 1.1 Enslaved Persons owned by the Jesuits c.1760…………………………………...52 Table 2.1 Enslaved People owned by the Society in the French Caribbean c.1763……….90 Table 2.2 Income of the Canada mission, 1665……………………………………………...95 Table 2.3 Burdens (“onera”) of the Canada mission, 1665………………………………....95 Table 2.4 Revenue for the Jesuits in the îles du Vent, 1743…………………….……….…102 Table 2.5 Expenses for the Jesuits in the îles du Vent, 1743………………………..………102 Table 4.1 Path of Bills of Exchange written on David Gradis et Fils………………..……..152 Table 4.2 Bills of Exchange drawn on David Gradis et fils. Apr. 1753-Jan. 1754…….….153 Table 6.1 Funds Lioncy frères et Gouffre owed to the Jesuits………………………….…..208 Table 6.2 Funds the Society owed to Lioncy frères et Gouffre………………………….….209 Table 6.3 Share of Jesuit debt in Lioncy frères et Gouffre’s assets and liabilities………...209 Table 6.4 Judgements against the Jesuits by the Paris merchant court…………………...234 Table 7.1 Anti-Jesuit Works………………………………………….……………………....251 Table 7.2 Pro-Jesuit Works…………………………………………………………………..251 Table 8.1 Missionary Allegiance and Province of Origin…………….………………….….296 Table 9.1 Missiones Americae Meridionalis accounts for 1749………………………….....304 Table 9.2 Missiones Americae Meridionalis accounts for 1754………………………….....304 4 Table 9.3 De la Touche’s Summary of the Mission’s income………………………………307 Table 9.4 De la Touche’s summary of the mission’s active debts…………………………..307 5 Acknowledgements Like Lavalette, I have many debts which I can never repay. My supervisors at McGill, Allan Greer and Kate Desbarats, have been the models of academic mentors. They suggested books, wrote reference letters, and offered financial support without which this dissertation would not have been possible. Nicholas Dew provided valuable feedback and suggestions. Any remaining errors are mine rather than theirs. A fellowship from the Cundil Foundation covered three years of study at McGill. Funding from the McGill Faculty of Arts defrayed the cost of a 2014 archival research trip to Europe during which many archivists assisted with the research. At the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome, Fr. Daneluk answered key questions and Francisco the archivist somehow brought me the documents I requested despite my nonexistent Italian. Fr. Robert Bonfils at the Archives français de la Compagnie de Jésus introduced me to the collections at Vanves which contained key documents for this project. Rebecca Somerset tracked down names in the Archives of the Jesuits in Britain. Isabel Harvey kindly checked my French translations and taught me more about the inner workings of patronage networks than I could have ever learned from academic literature. Sonia Isadori put me up in her Ostiense guest room within walking distance of one of Rome’s best gelaterias and recommended several books on the Jesuits. Leslie Tomory provided me with an introduction to Opus Dei’s Netherhall House in London, who kindly opened their doors to a Protestant researching a Catholic scandal. En France, je devais dire un grand “merci” au Christian Bosc et sa femme, qui a donné un chamber dans leur maison à Marseille à un pauvre etudient Americain pour quelques jours. Merci aussi à Bernard Lemenager, qui m’a donné l’usage de son pied-à-terre à Paris pour deux mois en 2014, et à sa fille Agathe. Mes recherches étaient les plus agréable grâce à leur hôpitalité et bonté. 6 Leslie Tomory and Thomas Glasbergen provided indispensable help making sense of Lavalette’s sometimes barely comprehensible Latin. I will miss translating Augustine and Milton with them amid Thompson House’s afternoon hububb. Thanks also goes to the Desperate to Finish Anonymous writing group at McGill. Carolyn McNally, Colin Gilmour, Sonia Roy, Veronika Helfert, Raminder Saini and Max Hamon need no longer remain anonymous. Their comments, constructive criticism, and timely deadlines got me over the hump of the first chapters. A short-term research fellowship at the John Carter Brown Library in the fall of 2016 allowed me to read about Jesuit haciendas surrounded by the indescribable beauty of a New England autumn. The warm feedback I received from the international collection of scholars gathered there gave me the first inkling that my project would be of interest to historians outside the French Atlantic. Scott Miller encouraged me to reconstruct the macro-economic context of Lavalette’s activities, a line of inquiry which bore much fruit, and conversations