He is notable also as the founder of the remarkable Perier family "bourgeois dynasty" that rose to economic and political influence and prominence in France during the 19th century.

Perier Bank (Paris); Regent Bank of France; Anzin owner-director; Chaillot machine shops; Paris Chamber of Commerce; Deputy (Seine, Aube); Prime Minister; Legion of Honor Adelaide-Hélène (Marine) 1779–1851) m. Camille Teisseire (Sub-Prefect, Ardèche; Deputy, Isère; Legion of Honor) Camille-Joseph (1781–1844) m. Pelagie Lecouteulx de Canteleu.

[2] He was an aspiring merchant of linen and canvas cloth, and Grenoble at the time was becoming a main commercial center with links to important markets at Arles, Avignon, Lyons, Marseilles and the great annual fair at Beaucaire.

[4] The trade in linens was a mainstay, but the Periers also acted as credit bankers for area businesses, made land investments, and ventured into manufacturing at Grenoble on their own account (muslins, 1777; hardware, 1779).

Printed cottons were mainly imported from India and were known as indiennes,[6] but they began to be fabricated in France in 1760 by the famous industrialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf (1738–1815).

[7] Jacques and Claude Perier began the production of these printed stuffs in 1775–1777 at Vizille, a small village just south of Grenoble.

[8] Famously, in a bold entrepreneurial move in 1780, Claude purchased the historic 17th century Château de Vizille with its large rooms and spacious main hall, extensive grounds, numerous out-buildings, streams and water park, as well as nearby lands in Oisans and La Mure.

[9] As became typical of his business style, Claude Perier was involved in other money-making projects even as production of printed cottons at the Vizille factory began to get underway.

[13] Claude Perier played an important role in the onset of the French Revolution by supporting resistance in Grenoble (Assembly of Vizille) by the Parlement of Dauphiny against the centralizing and fiscal abuses of the monarchy of Louis XVI.

Associating himself readily with all the opinions and all of the hopes of that period, he made hurriedly all the preparations necessary for such a large gathering, and his eagerness, which was not without danger, was worthy of the tokens of public gratitude.

"[14] Almost 500 persons gathered at the Château de Vizille (21 July 1788) where Claude provided a large banquet for the deputies of the province.

Mostly, although also with popular support, it was an assemblage of well-to-do "notables": churchmen, landed nobility, lawyers, notaries, municipal officials, businessmen and doctors.

"[17] In 1793, when France was at war and Jacobins of the National Convention held sway in Paris (Marie Antoinette was guillotined on October 31, 1793), he organized a company to manufacture rifles for the French Army in Savoy; and with the chemist-geologist Alexandre Giroud, he petitioned Paris for permission to establish the production of commercial soda at the cantons of Vizille and La Mure near Grenoble.

[18] These initiatives enhanced his reputation as a patriot and good citizen (bon citoyen) at an opportune time, for in October 1793 Claude found himself denounced as an enemy of the Revolution by Pierre Chépy, who was president of Grenoble's Société Populaire.

He was accused of cupidity, for liquidating his sugar importing company (Perier, Berlioz & Rey) by paying investors in depreciated assignats, and more seriously, of supporting an anti-Jacobin revolt in southern France at Lyons.

But ultimately, his 'indiscretions' came to be excused, probably most importantly because he had befriended Camille Teisseire, a very popular Jacobin member of Grenoble's municipal council and the city's chief of police.

[19] When the Thermidorian Reaction cooled down revolutionary fervor in France, Claude shifted his business activity to Paris, where he took up residence (28 November 1794) at No.341-43 rue Saint-Honoré.

In Paris, Claude made contacts with leading merchant-manufacturers and money-managers, such as Jean Lecouteulx de Canteleu, William Sabatier, Médard Desprez and Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, and also the noted legal advisor, Pierre-Nicolas Berryer.

Claude had associated in 1796 with a group of twenty or so bankers and businessmen to establish a private bank called the Caisse des Comptes Courants.

He had brought the Periers successfully through the difficult years of the Revolution, leaving an enormous fortune and invaluable social and business connections that would help the family on its way to prominence.

As for Claude's death, Bourset references the matter-of-fact report in the Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier's Notices historiques sur la famille Perier (Paris, 1844), that "he died for having spent an hour in his unheated study wearing a mere dressing-gown.