Pereire Brothers (Émile and Isaac)
Émile Pereire (1800–1875) and Isaac Pereire (1806–1880)
10 min read
Banker brothers of Bordeaux origin and disciples of Saint-Simonianism, they financed the first French railway (Paris–Saint-Germain, 1837) and founded the Crédit Mobilier (1852), an innovative investment bank that rivaled the Rothschilds under the Second Empire.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- 1837: inauguration of the Paris–Saint-Germain line, the first steam passenger railway in France, financed by the Pereires
- 1852: founding of the Crédit Mobilier, France's first modern investment bank, with the backing of Napoleon III
- 1850s–1860s: financing of railway lines in France, Spain, Austria, and Russia
- 1867: collapse of the Crédit Mobilier following a financial crisis and a counter-offensive by the Rothschilds
- Their name lives on in the Pereire station on Paris Métro Line 3 (opened in 1911)
Works & Achievements
France's first steam-powered passenger railway, inaugurated on August 26, 1837 after years of financial and technical difficulties. It demonstrated the economic viability of rail travel in France and paved the way for a national rail network.
An innovative investment bank created under Napoleon III, and the first institution to raise large amounts of popular capital to finance major industrial enterprises. It foreshadowed the modern merchant bank and inspired similar institutions across Europe.
A shipping company founded by the Pereires that connected France to North America by steamship. It became one of the great maritime companies of the 19th century and remained active under the name French Line into the 20th century.
An extensive network of railway lines across southern France financed by the Crédit Mobilier, connecting Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, and the Spanish border. This network had a lasting impact on the economy of southwestern France.
A Parisian palace hotel financed by the Pereires and the first modern luxury hotel in Paris. It embodied the marriage of financial capitalism and Haussmann's urban development at the heart of the Second Empire.
A theoretical work in which Isaac Pereire sets out his Saint-Simonian vision of economics and credit. The first programmatic text explaining how investment banks can finance national industrial development.
Anecdotes
On August 26, 1837, Émile and Isaac Pereire inaugurated France's first railway line, Paris–Saint-Germain. Doctors had claimed that the locomotive's speed would drive passengers mad, and local residents feared the smoke would kill their poultry. Yet within the very first week, thousands of Parisians flocked to the Gare Saint-Lazare, and the line turned a profit almost immediately.
Fervent disciples of the philosopher Henri de Saint-Simon, the Pereire brothers attended Saint-Simonian gatherings in Paris in their youth. This doctrine, which advocated organizing the economy through bankers and engineers in the service of industry, shaped their entire lives: each of their great enterprises — railways, the Crédit Mobilier, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique — was presented as social progress just as much as a source of profit.
The rivalry between the Pereires and the banker James de Rothschild was legendary under the Second Empire. When they founded the Crédit Mobilier in 1852, Rothschild fumed and branded them “dangerous sectarians,” before mounting a financial counteroffensive to torpedo their railway projects. This war of bankers, watched across Europe, favored the Pereires for fifteen years — until the collapse of the Crédit Mobilier in 1867 finally proved their rival right.
Napoleon III was a decisive ally of the Pereires: convinced that major transport and credit enterprises would transform France, he smoothed the path for their railway concessions and approved the creation of the Crédit Mobilier. In return, the brothers helped finance part of the modernization of the Grands Boulevards and contributed to the Haussmann-era real estate boom. This imperial backing proved double-edged: when the Empire began to falter after 1866, the Pereires lost their political support.
Following the resounding bankruptcy of the Crédit Mobilier in 1867–1868, which ruined many small investors, Émile Pereire refused to evade his responsibilities. He wrote a lengthy public defense explaining his financial decisions and arguing for credit reform. Despite the debacle, the brothers retained a personal fortune and remained active in their other ventures, notably the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, which they had founded in 1855.
Primary Sources
The Company's purpose is to discount, purchase and sell all public securities and transferable instruments, to underwrite public funds, shares and bonds, to issue redeemable term bonds, and generally to participate in all public and private credit operations.
Industry is the sole source of all wealth; bankers and men of credit are the natural organizers of society's productive forces. Their mission is to put capital at the service of labor, not to sterilize wealth in strongboxes.
Passenger traffic has exceeded all expectations: more than 400,000 people traveled our line in the first four months of operation. Revenues comfortably cover operating costs, and we can state with confidence that the steam railway is destined to transform communications throughout France.
France cannot afford to fall behind England and Belgium on the path of railways. Every year of delay costs our commerce and industry millions that our rivals carry away. The State must choose: either build these lines itself, or allow private initiative to build them under its supervision.
Gentlemen, the 1856 financial year has been most satisfactory. Our stakes in the major railway, gas, and navigation enterprises have produced the results we anticipated. The dividend we are proposing bears witness to the vitality of the crédit mobilier principle as applied to the financing of national industry.
Key Places
Birthplace of the Pereire brothers, from a Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese origin settled in the Gironde. They left Bordeaux in their youth to move to Paris and pursue careers in Saint-Simonian finance.
Departure point of the Paris–Saint-Germain line inaugurated in 1837, Paris's first railway terminus. It was here that the Pereire brothers brought their dream of a transport revolution in France to life.
Housed in a private mansion in the 8th arrondissement, the Crédit Mobilier was the financial heart of the Pereire empire during the Second Empire. This was where the major operations financing European railways were decided.
Terminus of France's first railway line (1837), financed by the Pereires. This royal town, previously reachable only by stagecoach, became France's first railway destination.
A vast country estate purchased by Émile Pereire at the height of his success. This lavish property with its English-style parkland symbolizes the social rise of a Jewish family from Bordeaux to the pinnacle of French high finance.
The temple of Parisian finance where Crédit Mobilier shares were traded and speculated upon. The Pereires faced off against their Rothschild rivals here in memorable stock-market battles followed across all of Europe.
