Abraham Gradis
Abraham Gradis · Economics & Business
Bordeaux shipowner and royal purveyor who provisioned French Canada through the Seven Years' War
vers 1699, Bordeaux, France — 1780, Bordeaux, France
Bordeaux, Québec
Abraham Gradis is recognized among Jewish contributors to Economics & Business — Bordeaux shipowner and royal purveyor who provisioned French Canada through the Seven Years' War
Origins and early life
Abraham Gradis was born around 1699 in Bordeaux, into a Portuguese Jewish family of Marrano extraction that had fled the Iberian persecutions; his uncle David Gradis had founded the family trading house in 1696.
Work and career
Under Abraham the firm rose to the first rank of French Atlantic commerce, trading with England, Holland, Canada and the French West Indies, and in 1744 he was appointed a royal purveyor. His great hour came with the Seven Years' War: while Britain and France fought for North America, his ships carried food, supplies and munitions to starving French Canada — some nine million livres of commerce, with more than half of his vessels captured by the English.
Louis XV had his minister Berryer convey the king's praise for these services. A generation later, the abbé Grégoire cited the Gradis house in arguing for the emancipation of the Jews of France. Abraham Gradis died in Bordeaux in 1780, the most celebrated Jewish merchant of his century in France.
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Source: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gradis
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Bordeaux shipowner and royal purveyor who provisioned French Canada through the Seven Years' War
Source: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gradis
