Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 35. (1982)

LY-TIO-FANE, Madeleine: Contacts between Schönbrunn and the Jardin du Roi at Isle de France (Mauritius) in the 18th Century. An Episode in the Career of Nicolas Thomas Baudin

Contacts between Schönbrunn and the Jardin du Roi

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St. Domingue and Martinique with ornamental or useful plants; and presented to Emperor Joseph II a considerable collection of live plants accompanied by preserved specimens of the clove, the nutmeg, and other curiosities, and an assortment of seeds (60 different species)2). The collection accompanied by a book of instructions had been entrusted to Count Pierre de Proli who left Isle de France on the ‘Ville de Vienne’ in July 1782 **). And Céré to add:

‘... Aussi ai-je jouis bien de fois en voyant l’étonnement des étrangers Anglois, Portugals, Espagnols, Suédois, Danois, Allemands, Hollandois, de trouver dans une isle aussi éloignée de la métropole et comme jettée au milieu de l’Océan Indien, un lieu aussi riche aussi célébre . . .’3).

The arrival of Pierre de Proli at Isle de France on the ‘Ville de Vienne’ is symptomatic of the outburst of commercial activity in the Austrian Netherlands at the start of the American War of Independence. Much was to be made of the neutrality of the Imperial Flag. When England declared war on the United Provinces in 1780, the opportunity came for Ostend and Antwerp, the rivals of Amsterdam. In 1781 Emperor Joseph II declared Ostend a free port, and in consequence much of the naval equipment and the goods needed by France and her colonies were conveyed through it in transit. From Ostend, various attempts were made to obtain a share in the commerce of the West Indies, while in the East the old connections were renewed, mainly through the activities of the Asiatic Company of Trieste. Based on the Adriatic port, the Company was really run by financial groups from the Austrian Netherlands, including the managers of the former Ostend Company; the latter maintained close links with business and trading firms in Paris, Lyons and Marseilles. When the Asiatic Company of Trieste got itself into difficulties, Emperor Joseph II himself while on visit in 1781 to Brussels intervened, reviving it as the Imperial Company for Asia and Africa. It planned to extend its activities to an area comprised between Delagoa Bay, Bengal and Canton. Thus Isle de France, where business groups were campaigning for the establishment of a free port, became a useful station for the development of the Company’s activities.

Pierre de Proli himself was extremely well connected. The son of Charles, a banker at Antwerp and co-founder of the Chamber of Insurance in the Austrian Netherlands, the grandson of one of the founders of the Ostend Com2) Céré to Souillac, 29th March 1787: Collection of the Royal Society of Arts & Sciences of Mauritius Lettres du Jardin de l’Isle de France (henceforth Lettres) V fol. 116-117.

2a) Céré to Emperor Joseph II, 10th July 1782: Lettres IV fol. 121.

3) ‘Recensement de tout ce que renferme le Jardin du Roi, le Monplaisir, Isle de France, remis par M. de Céré, Major d’infanterie, Commandant du quartier des Pamplemousses, Directeur du dit Jardin, ä M. le Brasseur, Commissaire du Roi et In- specteur, 21 Juin 1785’: Vide Appendix II of René Le Juge de Segrais’ article L’ancien Jardin du Roi, le Monplaisir, á l’Isle de France in Recueil trimestriel de documents et travaux inédits pour servir ä l’histoire des Mascareignes frangaises 3 (1934) 435-450, 485-492; 4 (1935) 9-86.