Pierre Poivre
Pierre Poivre ( born August 23, 1719 Lyon; † January 6, 1786 in Saint -Romain -au -Mont- d'Or ) was a French physiocrat, reconnaissance and horticulture specialist. But he was also a missionary in China and Cochinchina, administrator of Mauritius and Réunion and Member of the Order of the Holy Spirit ( Ordre du Saint -Esprit ).
Life and work
He was the son of Hilaire Poivre (1671-1739) from Lyon and his wife Marie Pompallier ( 1699-1770 ). He had a brother, Denis Poivre. The paternal grandfather, Gabriel Poivre (* 1644), and his wife Marie Greney had two sons, Jean Hilaire Poivre and Poivre ( 1673-1740 ), from whose line Pierre Sonnerat comes.
In his early years he worked as a missionary in Cochin China, Guangzhou and Macao. In 1745 he went as a member of the French East India Company to India and was involved in a naval battle with the British. His wrist was shattered by a cannon ball; then had part of his right arm amputated.
1766 Poivre administrator of Ile de France ( Mauritius) and Ile Bourbon ( Réunion) in the Indian Ocean. He is particularly known for the introduction of clove and nutmeg to Mauritius and Reunion. Until then, the Dutch had a virtual monopoly on these spices in the East Indies. In order to procure the spices, Poivre organized 1769-1770 the robbery and smuggling of these plants and their seeds from the Banda Islands in the southern Moluccas. Poivre was also responsible for introducing these spice plants in the Seychelles.
His wife was Marie Françoise Robin de Livet ( 1749-1841 ). Pierre Poivre married Marie Françoise on September 5, 1766 Pommiers in today's Rhône region. This connection came from the children of Marie Poivre (1768-1787), François Julienne Ile -de -France Poivre (1770-1845) and Sarah Poivre ( 1773-1814 ). After the death of her husband, Marie Françoise married in 1795 Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours.
In the northern Mauritius Poivre founded the now Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden called botanical garden with 25 hectares of land and tropical plants and trees from Africa, Asia, North and South America and islands of the Indian Ocean. The Poivre Atoll ( Amiranten ) is named after him.
A new edition of his book Voyages d'un philosophe ( 1768) in German in 1997 moved Poivre for several years back in the center of interest. The text is a mixture of travelogue and political- economic considerations, among others, he undergoes Montesquieu's theory of oriental despotism of an empirical criticism. Poivre was one of the last European writers of that time who have not already came with the firm conviction of European superiority over the rest of the world to Asia.
Works (selection)
- Voyages d'un philosophe, ou observations sur les moeurs et les arts des peuples de l' Afrique de l' Asie et de l' Amérique. ( 1768)
- Oeuvres complettes [sic ] de P. Poivre: intendant of the Isles de France et de Bourbon, correspondant de l' accademie of science, etc: précédées de sa vie et de accompagnées notes. Chez Fuchs, (1797 )
Trivia
Poivres book The Adventures of a philosopher was read with interest by Thomas Jefferson, his description of the cultivation of upland rice in Vietnam was particularly Jefferson's attention.