Prince Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki ('' en, Francis Xavier Drucki-Lubecki''; 4 January 1778–10 May 1846) was an important

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

politician,

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and diplomat of the first half of the 19th century. He served as the minister of the

treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

in the

Congress Kingdom of Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It ...

. He was nicknamed "Small Prince" because of his short height.

Biography

Franciszek was born to Genowefa Olizar-Wołczkiewicz and Franciszek Drucki-Lubecki of the Drucki-Lubecki aristocratic family in Pohost Zahorodzki in

Polesia Polesia, Polesie, or Polesye, uk, Полісся (Polissia), pl, Polesie, russian: Полесье (Polesye) is a natural and historical region that starts from the farthest edge of Central Europe and encompasses Eastern Europe, including East ...

(today's Pahost Zaharodski, a village in the

Brest voblast Brest Region or Brest Oblast or Brest Voblasts ( be, Брэ́сцкая во́бласць ''(Bresckaja vobłasć)''; russian: Бре́стская о́бласть (''Brestskaya Oblast)'') is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative cent ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

) on 4 January 1778. After graduation from an infantry

cadet A cadet is an officer trainee or candidate. The term is frequently used to refer to those training to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. Its meaning may vary between countries which can include youths in ...

school he joined the

Russian military The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...

in 1794 and remained in service until 1800. He served under the command of

Alexander Suvorov Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov (russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Суво́ров, Aleksándr Vasíl'yevich Suvórov; or 1730) was a Russian general in service of the Russian Empire. He was Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy ...

and participated in his campaigns in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Then he became the Marshal of Nobility of

Grodno Grodno (russian: Гродно, pl, Grodno; lt, Gardinas) or Hrodna ( be, Гродна ), is a city in western Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, 300 km (186 mi) from Minsk, about 15 km (9 mi) from the Polish b ...

gubernia A governorate, gubernia, province, or government ( rus, губе́рния, p=ɡʊˈbʲɛrnʲɪjə, also romanized ; uk, губернія, huberniia), was a major and principal administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire. After the empir ...

. From 1813 to 1815 he was the member of the High Provisional Council (''Rada Najwyższa Tymczasowa'') of the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

. He supported the peaceful resolution of the conflict with

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and supported

Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The son of ...

, who he thought was liberal enough to support extended Polish autonomy. In 1816 he became the

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

of Grodno gubernia and a member of the commission for settling the financial accounts between Kingdom of Poland and Russian Empire. He organised a campaign for the introduction of foreign investors, professionals and workers into Poland. In 1816, as a governor, he issued a set of conditions for the settlement of ''"useful foreigners"'' in the Congress Kingdom of Poland. City of

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

was one that greatly benefited from his policies, becoming an important

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

center.

On 20 June 1820 he married Maria Scipio del Campo. They had three daughters: Tekla Drucka-Lubecka, Genowefa Drucka-Lubecka and Julia Drucka-Lubecka. From 1821 to 1830 he was the minister of Treasure in the Kingdom of Poland. From 1824 he reformed the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

and

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...

industries. His policies significantly improved the

budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

and treasury of the Kingdom: he introduced many saving policies, improved

tax collection A revenue service, revenue agency or taxation authority is a government agency responsible for the intake of government revenue, including taxes and sometimes non-tax revenue. Depending on the jurisdiction, revenue services may be charged with ...

, introduced new

indirect tax An indirect tax (such as sales tax, per unit tax, value added tax (VAT), or goods and services tax (GST), excise, consumption tax, tariff) is a tax that is levied upon goods and services before they reach the customer who ultimately pays the i ...

es and expanded the national

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. He eliminated the budgetary deficit and using his connections in Russia he eliminated many

tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...

s between the Kingdom of Poland and proper Russian Empire. This has improved the Polish

exports An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

eastwards. He also protected new industries from western

import An import is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited ...

, especially from Germany, which led to a

tariff war A trade war is an economic conflict often resulting from extreme protectionism in which states raise or create tariffs or other trade barriers against each other in response to trade barriers created by the other party. If tariffs are the exclus ...

with Prussia. He founded the

National Bank of Poland The Narodowy Bank Polski (; the National Bank of Poland), often abbreviated to NBP, is the central bank of Poland, founded in 1945. It controls the issuing of Poland's currency, the Polish złoty. The bank is headquartered in Warsaw, and has bra ...

in 1828, he was also the initiator of the Land Credit Society (''Towarzystwo Kredytowe Ziemskie''). Drucki was convinced of harmfulness of ''

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...

'' policies and supported state interventionism. He represented the political faction known as 'Conciliators', which believed that Polish independence may come only through economic growth and diplomacy, not military adventures. However the Conciliators were handicapped not only by their domestic opponents, the 'Insurrectionist' faction, but by the Russian imperial authorities themselves who rarely saw the need to compromise with a defeated, weak enemy. In the second half of the 19th century such line of thought would be continued by the positivists, and later by the ''

endecja National Democracy ( pl, Narodowa Demokracja, also known from its abbreviation ND as ''Endecja''; ) was a Polish political movement active from the second half of the 19th century under the foreign partitions of the country until the end of ...

'' movement. Therefore, Drucki opposed the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

against the Russia, which he deemed as folly and a dangerous gambit which would lose all that has been achieved over the past decade. During the uprising he attempted to negotiate with Russian authorities, but to no avail. After the defeat of the uprising - which, incidentally, was sponsored by money Drucki gathered in the nation's treasury - he left Poland but still remained in the Polish government, becoming a member of the new, now much more Russian-controlled, National Council. Since December 1830 he worked in Saint Petersburg on the legal reform for Poland. Since 1832 he became a member of

State Council of Imperial Russia The State Council ( rus, Госуда́рственный сове́т, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj sɐˈvʲet) was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia. From 1906, it was the upper house of the parliament under the ...

and in 1834 he worked on settling the financial accounts between Russia and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. After 1830 he never returned to Poland. He died on 10 May 1846 in Saint Petersburg in the

. Ksawera quarter in

Będzin Będzin (; also ''Bendzin'' in English; german: Bendzin; yi, בענדין, Bendin) is a city in the Dąbrowa Basin, in southern Poland. It lies in the Silesian Highlands, on the Czarna Przemsza River (a tributary of the Vistula). Even though par ...

is named after him. There is also a

non-governmental A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

in Poland, dedicated to the worlds of business and academics.

Honours and awards

In 1816, Franciszek was awarded the Polish Order of the White Eagle and, in 1815, he was awarded the Russian

Order of St. Vladimir The Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir (russian: орден Святого Владимира) was an Imperial Russian order established on by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptize ...

References

Genealogy entry

External links

Short bio

Longer bio

PWN Encyclopedia Encyklopedia PWN can refer to several encyclopedias published by Polish publisher Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe *Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN - published from 1962 to 1970 * Wielka Encyklopedia PWN - published from 2001 to 2005 *Internetowa ...

entry
Człowiek, który umiał robić z Rosją interesy
(The man who knew how to do business with Russia)

(Kill the treasure minister) by Leszek Biernacki {{DEFAULTSORT:Drucki-Lubecki, Franciszek Ksawery 1778 births 1846 deaths People from Pinsk District 19th-century Polish nobility Rurikids Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Members of Polish government (November Uprising) Polish economists 19th-century Polish politicians Military personnel of the Russian Empire Recipients of the Order of St. Anna Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir

Biography

Honours and awards

See also

References

Further reading

External links