Antoni Protazy Potocki (11 September 1761 – 1801), aka Prot, was a Polish nobleman and an early
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
. He was born to Paula née
Szembek
Szembek or originally von Schönbeck is the name of an old Polish noble family of German origin, whose members held significant positions in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
History
First mentioned at the beginning of the 14th century, th ...
and her second husband, Count Jan Prosper
Potocki, Starosta of
Guzów. He was a younger half-brother of
Feliks Lubienski and older half-brother of
Michal Kleofas Oginski and his sister, Józefa
Ogińska.
Antoni was
voivode
Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the ...
of
Kiev in 1791 and briefly,
starost of Guzów. He became a banker in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
.
As proprietor of the
Chudniv
Chudniv ( ua, Чуднів, pl, Cudnów, yi, טשודנאוו, russian: Чу́днов) is a city in Zhytomyr Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. Prior to 2020, it was the administrative center of the former Chudniv Raion. Population:
History
...
estate, he established several factories in the village of
Makhnivka, near
Berdychiv. He was director the ''Polish Black Sea Trading Company'', and ran an import-export business in Russian-ruled
Kherson. According to his great nephew, Thomas Wentworth Łubieński, "Prot" turned
Odessa from a "sleepy fishing village" into an international trade centre. This subsequently attracted the attention of
Catherine the Great who turned the thriving port into one of Russia's leading cities. Potocki had inherited wealth from his father. Due to the economic crisis in the country Potocki was bankrupt in 1793.
[Zofia Zielińska, ''Prot Potocki'', Polski Słownik Biograficzny, no. 28/1, 1984, p. 134-135.]
He was invested as a Knight of the
Order of the White Eagle, awarded on May 8, 1781.
References
1761 births
1801 deaths
People from Żyrardów County
Polish bankers
Ruthenian nobility of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
19th-century Polish businesspeople
Antoni Protazy Potocki
Antoni Protazy Potocki (11 September 1761 – 1801), aka Prot, was a Polish nobleman and an early Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur. He was born to Paula née Szembek coat of arms, Szembek and her second husband, Count Jan Prosper House of Potocki, P ...
18th-century Polish–Lithuanian businesspeople
Privy Councillor (Russian Empire)
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