David Gradis et Fils

The house

David Gradis, a merchant of Portuguese Jewish origin who had traded in Bordeaux since the end of the 17th century, bought 3 ships for the French Caribbean in 1717. In 1728 his house took the name David Gradis et fils. From 1717 to 1792 the Gradis fitted out 244 ships for the French colonies. In 1748 Gradis went into partnership with François Bigot, the intendant of New France, and Jacques-Michel Bréard, controller of the navy at Quebec, in the Société du Canada. From 1749 to 1755 the house sent at least 16 ships to its partners in Canada, and in 1751, on the death of David Gradis, his son Abraham took it on. In 1759 Abraham fitted out the Colibry, a ship of 140 tons, at Cádiz, then a neutral port. His partners at Quebec and a French house at Cádiz shared the cost, and its wine and brandy reached Quebec in May.

The house also took part in the slave trade. It fitted out its first slave-trade voyage in 1730. In 1743 it sent 2 ships to Africa, and both were captured by the British in the Caribbean. From 1763 to 1768 it fitted out 6 slave ships, sent to Gorée. In 1786 it sent 1 ship, the David, to Île de France and Mozambique, its only African voyage between 1782 and 1792. These voyages were under 5% of the house’s colonial fitting-outs. A directory of 1786 lists David Gradis in Bordeaux as shipowner and banker, and Gradis & fils as bankers. When Moïse Gradis died in 1788 the house was worth 4 million livres, almost half of it in property in the French Caribbean.

David Gradis, Abraham’s nephew and successor, was chosen by Malesherbes to preside over the commission that examined the status of the Jews in France. In the 19th century the family held vineyards on the palus, the rich flats along the river, across the Garonne from Bordeaux. Charles Cocks, the Englishman whose guide grew into the directory of the Bordeaux trade, gave Gradis 100 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) at Montferrand in 1850. By 1883 Henri Gradis had Margarence, at Montferrand, and Château des Lauriers, at Lormont, stood in the Gradis name. In 1922 the same estate, by then Château Margarance et Cailleau, at 125 tonneaux, was in the name of Mme H. Gradis, as was Château de Lavergne, at Lormont.

The house changed its name 2 times: in 1921 to Société française pour le commerce avec les colonies et l’étranger, and in 1957 to Société française pour le commerce avec l’outre-mer. In 1975, under the presidency of Henri Gradis, the company turned to the trade in Bordeaux wines. The same Henri Gradis gave its papers to the Archives nationales in 2005.

At a glance

Kind

House of the past

Based in

Bordeaux

Founded

End of the 17th century, by David Gradis; David Gradis et fils from 1728

Records

The Gradis papers, given to the Archives nationales in 2005

Today

Société française pour le commerce avec les colonies et l’étranger from 1921; Société française pour le commerce avec l’outre-mer from 1957; in the Bordeaux wine trade from 1975