Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-07-17
ENTERPRISE AND WEALTH OF JACQUES CGUR,


"HuST's MERCHANTS MAGAZINE " FOR JULY.
The Life and Times of JACQUES CGuR, the French Ar
gonau, has recently been published in London This work
contains the only notice, believe English of the great
French merchant and nancer of the middle ages during the
reigns of Henry V. and VI in England The London
Examiner thus the leading facts in the life OF Jacques
Ceur:
1T the money of Jacques Cour which enabled the
French profit by the genius and enthusiasm OF Joan Of Arc
and it his honest sympathy and steady manly counsel
which TO have sustained the tender and brave heart of
the nobe of royal mistresse Agnes Sorel in her efforts to
the King On her death she selected him for her
He had sprung from the people, and raised himself
by successful commercial enterprise TO level with the princes
of his age He found French behind that Of every
other nation, and left it prosperous and increasing Direct
and speedy communication with the east have been
his great idea Modern Europe still centending for it, He
had at time III this employment three hundred factors
and the rest of the merchants Of France with the whole Of
those of Italy, not supposed to have equaed this
the extent OF their commercial dealings. As rich Jacques
CGr became proverb II rumored and believed
that he had found the philosophers And he proved
worthy of his wealth by giving noble He raised three
armies for Charles at his own cost and he repaired and
established in his office of Argener the deranged finances
OF the kingdom But his weakness seems TO have lain in the
direction Of personal nagnicence and spendo and TO this
may trace his fall He did not allow sufficiently for the
peudces Of his age, and at last armed them for his ruin
He is described have far ranscended in his personal
tendance and equipments, the chiefs Of the most usou
families of France and when Charles made his triumpha
entry into Rouen the merchant Jacques Cur, by
the side of Duno with arms and tunic precisely the
his His destruction planned by party Of the mobiles,
and an Indictment Of all of crimes preferred against him
among them the charge Of having poisoned Agnes Sore He
narrowly escaped torture and death and only this by cons
cation Of his (Which his judges divided among them
seves) and perpetual Punishment The latter resolved itself
ultimately into OF strict surveillance in French convent,
which he last escaped by the fidelity of Of his agents.
who had married his niece. He again Enthusiastically
engaging active pursuits and beginning life the
Popes captain-general the Of Asia Minor when i'll
seized him in the Island Of Sco He left, in his DEATH
another example Of the worlds treatment Of its greatest bene
factors"
From the memoir make a single in regard to the
commercial enterprise ofthe great French merchant:
"In the of twenty years Jacques Crur had more
commercial power than all the Of the merchants Of the
Mediterranean put together Three hundred of his agents
sided the different ports not only of Europe but Of the East
and in all the nations contiguous to France Every where
his vessels respected though he had been sovereign
prince they covered the wherever be
cultivated and from farhest Asia they brought back cloths
of gold and silk, furs arms Spices and ngots of gold and sill
yer, still swelling his mighty stores, and filling Europe with
surprise at his adventurous daring and his unparalleled pese
verance. Like his great prototype, Cosmo de Medc who,
from simple merchant became supreme ruler, Jacques
Cu the Meds of Bourgc became lustrous and wealthy
and sailed long in the favorable beezes Of fortune admired
enved, feared, and courtcd by all.
% His wealth gave rise TO a proverb long retained nv the
citizens of his native town AS rich as Jacques Caur ex-
pressed all that could be conceived of prosperity and
Popular tradition asserts that great the prousion Of
the precious metals that he possessed that his horses do9
ruth Sicr common reputation, even at the present day,
enjoyed by persons Of singular wealth The adornment Of
Bougcs where he was born of the least projects
of the great merchants and having, with large sum- pur-
chased considerable tract Of land in the town. he began,
49, to build that magnificent mansion which still remains
noble relic of his taste and wealth."