Henri Germain (1824–1905) was a French

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

Early life

Henri Germain was born on 19 February 1824 in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

.Jacques-Marie Vaslin
Henri Germain, prudent banquier du Crédit lyonnais
''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', August 15, 2013 His father, Henri Germain, was a silk businessman, and his mother was Claudine Lupin. He received a law degree. He was a follower of Saint-Simonianism, and François Barthélemy Arlès-Dufour (1797-1872) became his mentor.

Career

Germain founded

Crédit Lyonnais The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th c ...

on 6 July 1863. It became the first bank in France to offer savings accounts with interest. The first shareholders were Saint-Simon followers like

Paulin Talabot Paulin Talabot (18 August 1799 – 21 March 1885) was a French railway and canal engineer. Educated at the École Polytechnique, Talabot started his career building canals. Inspired by George and Robert Stephenson's steam railways in England, he ...

(1799–1885), Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin (1796–1864), Arlès-Dufour and Michel Chevalier (1806-1879). Two years later, in 1865, he founded the Société Foncière Lyonnaise, a real estate company. In 1892, he spearheaded the construction of the Boulevard Carnot, then known as the ''Boulevard de la Foncière-Lyonnaise''. Germain was a member of the General Council of Ain from 1871 to 1883. He then served as a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

from 1868 to 1893.

Personal life and death

Germain was married to Blanche Germain. They resided at Villa Orangini in Cimiez,

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

.Christian Byk, 'Regard sur les villas niçoises', p. 91-101, ''Nice-Historique'', année 1989, no 40 Their son, André Germain (1881-1971), was a writer. Germain died on 2 February 1905.

Bibliography

*''La Situation financière de la France en 1886'' *''L’État politique de la France en 1886''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Germain, Henri 1824 births 1905 deaths Businesspeople from Lyon Politicians from Lyon French republicans Members of the 4th Corps législatif of the Second French Empire Members of the National Assembly (1871) Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 2nd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 3rd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Members of the 5th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic French bankers Saint-Simonists