The Hunt for Gold in Louisiana: The Ritz Paris and the Small Roll it Played in Louisiana History
The Ritz Paris is to the left of the monument with the white awning.
Today Place Vendôme is known for its bougie jewelry stores and clothing boutiques. Nestled among the fashion outlets is the luxurious Ritz Paris. It’s renowned for hosting an array of celebrities and artist over the years. In fact, fashion designer Coco Chanel lived in the hotel for 34 years. But there was another resident that lived there that became a pretty significant player in the colonial history of Louisiana.
Before New Orleans was a city, the land that the city occupies was named Bulbancha. This Native American trade post became an infatuation of the city’s founder Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville. The Native people of Bulbancha showed Bienville and his brother Iberville a passage to the Gulf via Bayou St. John, Lake Pontratrain, and the Rigolets in 1699. This backdoor to accessing 100 miles of river was one of the impetus that made Bulbancha an ideal place to build a port city.
The world Bulabancha first appeared in print in Antione-Simone Le Page du Pratz’ Histoire de la Louisiane (History of Louisiana) in 1751.
The first French settlement in Louisiana founded by brothers Iberville and Bienville was the city of Mobile (which is in the current state of Alabama). Settlement along the Gulf Coast was stagnant. France was wrapped up in building the opulent palace in Versailles and the War of Spanish Succession. Louis the XIV’s resources were tapped out. The French settlers along the coast were having a hard time cultivating the land. They were reliant on rations sent from France which were scarce if they got any at all.
In the absence of his elder brother Iberville, and the death of Commandant Sauvolle, a 21 year old Bienville assumed command of the Louisiana colony in 1702. He built relationships with the Native American’s, averted attacks by the Carolinians (who wanted to take control of the Mississippi), and held the poor colony together.
Though Bienville was holding down the fort, the cash strapped colony wasn’t prospering. In a turn of events Jérôme Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, minister of the French Navy, appointed Antione LaMothe Sieur de Cadillac to be the governor of Louisiana. Cadillac was given this appointment after Pontchartrian learned what a disaster of a man Cadillac was. He successfully pitched the idea to have a French settlement built on the southwestern end of the Great Lakes to control the fur trade.
To honor Pontchartrain, Cadillac named the settlement Fort Pontchartrian d’Etroit. The word détroit means narrow passage and makes reference to the strait connecting Lake Erie to Lake St. Clair, up to Lake Huron. That’s correct he is the founder of the present day city of Detroit and he has the American made luxury vehicle named in his honor. While his name is more recognized than any other French settler in North America, Pontchartrain demoted him to Governor of Louisiana because of corruption, mismanagement, and feuds with just about everyone he came in contact with.
Cadillac, to make the most of his new position, tried to cook up a scheme. He returned to France, where he pitched the exploitation of Louisiana to the kingdom’s wealthiest businessman, Antione Crozat. This meeting happened at Hôtel de Crozat, a palace built on Place Vendom, in what is now the Ritz Paris. In the same building that Coco Chanel lived in for 34 years, an early chapter of Louisiana History was written.
The fortune that Crozat amassed and used to build the Hôtel de Crozat (Ritz Paris) was made off of investments in the Guinea Company and the Asiento Company, two lucrative overseas franchises involved in the capture and sale of human bodies known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
A bicycle tour stops in front of the Hôtel de Crozat now the Ritz Paris.
Cadillac convinced Crozat that an investment in the Louisiana colony would produce a good return. For there was gold and silver mines in Louisiana…that still haven’t been found. Hook, line and sinker, Cadillac had Crozat’s attention and on September 14, 1712 Louisiana became privatized. Louis XIV gave Crozat an exclusive fifteen-year concession to develop Louisiana, making him financial administrator of the territory, with Cadillac as governor of course.
Crozat and Cadillac were not interested in colonizing, but in discovering new sources of silver and gold. Bienville counseled him that there were no precious metals, but he ignored him and wasted his time anyways.
After the death of Louis XIV, Philip II, duke of Orleans was appointed to be the regent. Philip had a different vision for the colony and cooked up a financial scheme himself with the help of Scottish economist John Law. Crozat was relived to be done with the colony, giving up his rights to it after just five years. During his possession of the Louisiana colony Crozat lost some 1.2 million livres. In the August of 1717 the Louisiana colony would turn a new leaf and become a corporation named the Company of the West. (Compagnie d’Occident).
—Eric Gabourel, Le Comte des Bicyclettes