Raoul, Benjamin

Origin

Vlissingen (XVII century)

Benjamin Raule was born in February 1634 in the Dutch town of Vlissingen in a family of Huguenots from Flanders Benjamin Raule and Maria Lesage ^[3] . His brother Jacob became a naval inspector and captain , Benjamin himself received a good trade education at that time, was fluent in French and Dutch , as well as Latin .

Years in Holland

In 1658, Raoul married Apollonia van den Brande (married to whom he had one daughter) and settled with her in Middelburg , the capital of the Dutch province of Zealand , where he became one of the richest merchants, a member of the magistrate and a lay judge , had The property is a town house and several land plots. Owning a shipping company and many of his own ships, he especially actively developed trade with France, which, due to the Franco-Dutch war that began in 1672, came to complete desolation and put Raula at the edge of a financial catastrophe. In an attempt to improve his affairs, Raule turned to the Elector Brandenburg Frederick Wilhelm with a proposal to equip ships and engage in privateering against Sweden , which was then at war with Brandenburg.

In the service of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm (1688)

Having received at the beginning of 1675 the necessary letters of marque , which the elector, who did not have his own fleet, issued in the hope of weakening the enemy, Raule hijacked 21 Swedish ships within 4 weeks, and four weeks later the Baltic Sea was essentially completely cleared of Swedish ships. In order to protect Raule from the reaction of Dutch merchants, who often flew under the Swedish flag and were directly affected by such seizures, the Brandenburg side decided to retroactively sign a fictitious agreement with him, according to which he allegedly leased 10 of his ships to the Elector. However, neither England nor Holland, to the ports of which the captured ships were delivered for sale, recognized them as privateers and began to return them to their owners, with which Friedrich Wilhelm, who did not want to make new enemies, was forced to agree in the end. From the debt prison Raoul, who under the contract himself had to bear all the costs and at the same time did not get any benefit, the elector saved only his expenses and appointed him as his adviser.

In the summer of 1675, Friedrich Wilhelm entered into a new, subsequently extended many times, agreement with Raule on the hiring of his ships for the war with Sweden, and the following year promoted him to "ship's directors" ( German Schiffs-Direktor ). In the fall of 1676 , fearing the persecution of his country, which threatened considerable fines to its subjects, seen in actions against Sweden, Raoul renounced his previous citizenship and privileges in Zealand and finally moved to Brandenburg with his family, which now began to receive a salary of 100 thalers monthly. Due to the connection with the elector, he became the most hated person in his homeland and later admitted that he suffered most from the persecution of the Dutch. And since there was no clear border between “legal” privateership and “illegal” piracy ^[2] , Raule could only be counted among pirates on the basis of the fact that he later received confirmation from the Brandenburg envoys that the elector agreed to issue privateer certificates legalizing the capture of strangers vessels, he began this marine "fishing", without waiting for their formal delivery.

Raoul took up any business the elector entrusted to him: whether it was privateering against Hamburg and Spain , under any pretexts that did not pay their debts to Brandenburg, siege and blockade of fortresses, naval battles, transportation of Brandenburg ground forces, a convoy of merchant ships or the transportation of arms built up by the Swedish garrison Stettin back to his homeland. At the same time, Raoul himself sometimes went to sea with his ships (preferring, for the rest, to direct work from land) and even participated in the development of the disposition of the ships hired by him for Brandenburg during the landing of the amphibious assault on Rügen . All this did not go unnoticed and at the end of 1677 R. was promoted to "senior director of maritime affairs" ( German Oberdirektor der Seesachen ). Raoul’s range of interests can be traced to the proposals submitted to Friedrich Wilhelm, which, to one degree or another, have been translated into reality: to revitalize trade in Prussia and establish a sugar factory in Stettin, increase customs duties and reorganize the system of weights and measures, optimize the use of lighters and sea bays, conservation of locks and restrictions for foreigners on the supervision of goods, the introduction of the Marine Corps and the establishment of a special maritime court in Kohlberg , so that Brandenburg-encouraged privateering It did not look like piracy in the eyes of other states.

After several years spent in Kohlberg, Königsberg and Pillau , Raoul moved to Berlin , where he bought an abandoned building in Friedrichsverder , later converted to a residential building. In 1682, Raule received from Friedrich Wilhelm an empty estate Rosenfelde ( German Rosenfelde ) in the eastern outskirts of Berlin and ordered to build on it a small two-story palace in the Dutch style (now the palace of Friedrichsfelde ), which, together with the park adjacent to it, served as an entertainment the Brandenburg nobility who visited him, led by the elector himself ^{[4] [5]} . In general, by 1687, with the transfer of almost unlimited power to him in all matters related to the navy and commercial fleet ^[6] , the position of Raoul reached its zenith.

Brandenburg Fleet Organization

In order not to depend on foreign shipbuilders, with the direct participation of Raule, shipyards in Kolberg and then in Hafelberg , Pillau, and Berlin were organized from 1676, from which their own Brandenburg-made warships began to descend ^[7] . At the same time, gravitating more to trade than to maritime affairs, Raule saw the benefit of the navy primarily in ensuring the safety of commercial shipping and (geo) political ambitions were completely alien to him ^[8] . Finally, at the head of the commercial and admiralty collegium organized by him in Pillau, the entrepreneurial spirit Raule found its proper application ^[9] .

The next agreement concluded with the Elector in January 1679 , according to which Raule hired him 8 ships with a crew of 400 officers and sailors, did not last long: he agreed with Raule’s arguments that his own ships would cost the state treasury much cheaper , October 1, 1684 Frederick bought 9 ships belonging to that from Raule, and this day since then has often been called the birthday of the Navy of Brandenburg. Thus, the Brandenburg fleet organized by Raoul at that time numbered 28 ships ^[10] , which made it possible to solve the tasks assigned to it in the adjacent seas, although it could not be compared in number with the largest maritime powers of that time (for example, in the war that began several years later) The Augsburg League was attended by 173 English, 102 Dutch and 221 French ships ^[11] ). Raule himself in February of the following year was appointed "Director General of the Navy" ( French General Directeur de Marine - a position corresponding to the Minister of the Navy) with a salary of 400 thalers monthly (for comparison: at that time professors of German universities to earn such money, it took a whole year ^[12] ).

Brandenburg-Africa Company

Raoul’s first project on organizing trade in African Guinea arose as early as 1676, the implementation of which was then impeded by the ongoing war with Sweden. After not receiving support for his plans for the commercial development of Greenland , Raule returned to his original ideas. In 1681, he equipped himself with his own money and sent two ships to the coast of Guinea, one of which returned directly to Pillau with a cargo that brought about 100 thousand thalers ^{[13] [10]} . The Elector granted the expedition only 20 soldiers and permission to sail under the Brandenburg flag. At the suggestion of Raule in March 1682, an edict of Friedrich Wilhelm organized a trading company on the coast of Guinea, later called the " Brandenburg-African Company " ( German: Brandenburgisch-Afrikanische Compagnie ), which became the first German joint-stock company ^[14] . In the summer of the same year, two more Brandenburg ships were sent to the shores of Africa, and out of 44 thousand thalers that were needed for the expedition, 8 were brought by the Elector, 2 by the Crown Prince and 24 by Raule himself ^[15] . Since both the Brandenburg Navy and the Brandenburg-African Company, formally independent from each other, were controlled by Raule, in practice there was often a confusion of their functions and finances, which only fueled rumors of systematic abuse ^[16] .

The cargo on board the ships being dispatched mainly consisted of fabrics from Flanders and Silesia , firearms and ammunition for it, knives, mirrors, metal utensils, glass beads and strong alcohol, and among the goods that were intended to be exported from Africa, the first mentioned slaves, gold and ivory ^[16] . As Raoul himself wrote: “Everyone knows that the slave trade is a source of wealth” ^[17] . He treated slaves, in the spirit of his time, exclusively as a product that should be profitable, requiring in his instructions from the expedition leader to buy as many slaves as possible and, if necessary, make “stocks” of them to resell at the next opportunity, because all expenses for their maintenance were limited to only a small amount of rice ^[18] . Over the years, the company has transported about 17 thousand slaves from Africa ^[19] , the starting point for which was the Gross-Friedrichsburg colony on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea .

At first, commercial success was very modest, and even had to take a loan to equip the next expedition. Fierce competition with other companies (primarily with the United East India ), corruption in their own company, non-transparent financial management - these are just some of the problems that its manager had to deal with ^[5] . Only a few years later, revenues began to prevail, and Raoul immediately began to think about expanding the company, buying islands in the Caribbean , where it would be possible to organize a market for slaves brought from Africa, and buy indigo , cocoa , coffee , sugar , ginger or tobacco (in reality, I had to limit myself to renting part of St. Thomas from the Danes ). The company was renamed the " Brandenburg-African-American ", and administrative buildings, warehouses, barracks for involved soldiers were transferred from Pillau to Emden, which does not freeze in winter ^[16] .

Serving Elector Frederick III

Initially, with regard to the navy and the commercial fleet, the new Elector Frederick III , who came to power in 1688, continued his father’s line completely. However, the reorganization of the Admiralty, to which three directors were now appointed simultaneously, showed that new times had come for Raoul. The next check of the accounts of the African company revealed that its losses reached more than 454 thousand talers, while Raul reported much more optimistic figures. The new accusations against him, from which Friedrich Wilhelm, who had full confidence in him, defended him in every way, were not long in coming: sole management, concealment of information, giving conflicting instructions, inappropriate nature of expenses, inflated personnel, purchase of too many ships, bad goods sold. Since the investigation against Raule found him innocent on all counts, he received from the elector as compensation for the damage caused nearly 10 thousand thalers and was restored to his previous position ^[20] . Raule was not least obliged by his rehabilitation to the intercession of the first Minister Dankelman , with whom he had been familiar for a long time ^[21] . In order to somehow limit Raule’s influence, the commercial collegium was separated from the naval and taken out of his control, but things went so bad that he had to take them both back under his wing and manage for another 4 years ^{[ 20]} . For a while, Raule seemed to regain his lost ground again, but his position and the fleet and trading company he headed were no longer so solid.

Opal and the Last Years of Life

Having gained influence on Frederick III, the group led by Kolbe set himself the task of removing from the road Dankelman and all those who stood next to him or under his patronage. A new investigation launched in January 1698 led to the fact that on December 12 of that year, Raule was taken to the Spandau Citadel (where he was already under Dankelman’s arrest), and all his property was confiscated in favor of the Elector.

Among the points of the indictment were: violation of the state monopoly on timber (which was refuted by the submitted documents), negligence in maintaining accounts, damage to the elector by transferring shares of the company owned by Raula into the hands of other owners. In addition, he was accused of being a contributor to a limited partnership that owned a mint in Emmerich , he knew about the violations (low quality coins, minting fake Dutch shillings ), but tried to hide them. Raoul pleaded not guilty, but perhaps because of fear that otherwise the process - which for the 66-year-old man was already a real test - would drag on even longer, asked the elector for pardon, agreeing to refuse his property in exchange for life retirement. Frederick III - by that time already the king of Prussia - granted the petition for clemency, and on May 12, 1702, Raoul was released from custody, received several hours on a date with his sick wife, and was escorted to live in Emden. Indirect evidence of Raoul’s innocence is the fact that he - recently accused of embezzlement and fraud - was sent to Emden with an order in the interests of the Brandenburg state to correct the declining cases of the African company ^[22] .

Raul, who was once very wealthy (as Theodor Fontane ^[23] wrote about him in his Travels on the Brandenburg Brand ), had no money to rent an apartment in the city ^[3] , and he had to settle on an old three-masted sailing boat, on which he - in winter and summer - lived for 40 months, until he let it flow. Only at the end of 1705 did the king allow Raula, who had already become a widower, to move to Hamburg, where he died on May 17, 1707. All of his property, which turned out to be much smaller than anticipated - 10 thousand thalers in cash, another 26 thousand in shares, as well as a house in Friedrichsverder and many outstanding debts - went to the king ^[9] .

The fate of the African company and the navy of Brandenburg-Prussia, once brought to life by Raoul, turned out to be equally unenviable: without the organizational talent of an energetic Dutchman and the necessary support of the king, they quickly fell into complete disrepair. Over the next ten years, Prussia lost all of its colonies , the company was disbanded, and the entire fleet, already reduced by more than two-thirds by 1700 ^[15] , practically ceased to exist ^[24] . The rulers of Prussia wanted to see it as a purely continental power, and only towards the end of the 19th century did Germany again revive interest in maritime affairs and colonial politics - two centuries after the first attempt, once undertaken by Benjamin Raul.

Already in 1675, the envoys in The Hague accused Raoul of making up a third of the inflated prices in the preparation of cost estimates, hiring more sailors than necessary, and then letting them go and profit from it. The first check of his accounts took place at the initiative of Raoul himself, who asked Admiral Cornelis Tromp to do this, and did not reveal any violations. In addition, Raule was suspected of appropriating a larger share of the prize than was due to him under the lease agreements for his ships concluded with Friedrich Wilhelm, however, even the commission organized for the investigation found nothing reprehensible ^[8] . A case in point is the capture of the Spanish ship Charles II by the Brandenburg flotilla, from the sale of the cargo of which only 100 thousand thalers were able to be obtained, although there were supposed to be three times more goods on board; Raule was immediately accused of concealing the rest, however, in all likelihood, the flotilla crew itself “tried” here ^[25] .

Even Raoul’s commercial proposals to the Elector (including the organization of trade in Africa), his detractors explained only by his fear that after the war with Sweden would cease to be as irreplaceable for Friedrich Wilhelm as before. To statements that the Navy did not bring Brandenburg anything but losses of many hundreds of thousands of thalers, Raule replied that one should not immediately demand fruit from a recently planted tree. Later, Raule’s assessment was widespread as an adventurer who had nothing to lose and who used every opportunity to make a profit, which was the secret of his need for the elector ^[9] , but authors who did not have access to the necessary historical documents could have such an opinion.

Nowadays, in addition to the book “ Deduction On the New Admiralty and Commercial Collegium ” ( German: Deduction Von einem Neuen Admiralitets und Commertz Collegio ), published in 1680, which he was the author of ^[26] , it does not remind much of Raoul’s life. The buildings of the so-called “ Raoul Court ” in Friedrichsverder, where he once lived, were demolished in the 1930s , giving way to the Reichsbank building (now the German Foreign Ministry is located there) ^{[27] [28]} . One of the escort ships named in his honor sank during the Second World War in the English Channel ^[29] , the second - the destroyer escort , renamed Raoul in 1959 - served nine years as a training vessel for the Bundesmarin , after which sawn into scrap metal ^[30] . Not a single image or description of Raoul’s appearance has survived, and his bust, made in 1910 by order of the German Emperor Wilhelm II Count von Goertz ( German von Görtz ), is only the result of the sculptor’s artistic vision ^[31] .

• Schück, Richard. Brandenburg-Preußens Kolonial-Politik unter dem Großen Kurfürsten und seinen Nachfolgern: (1647 - 1721). Bd. 1 (German) . Leipzig: Grunow, 1889.