He inherited a line of steamships for passenger, cargo and mail services that he greatly expanded to operate between southern France, Corsica, Italy, Spain and Algeria.

[5] In 1843 the limited company Joseph et Frères Valéry was founded with five ships: Télégraph, Golo, Ambassadeur Pozzo di Borgo, Maréchal Sebastiani and Letizia.

[5] In 1845 the Compagnie Valéry placed an order with the shipyard of La Ciotat for the steamship Bonaparte, an innovative design with an iron hull and a propeller.

[5] The trials gave excellent results, with much lower fuel consumption per horsepower per hour than paddle boats.

[1] In 1856 the fleet was enlarged with the addition of the Ajaccio, Bastia, Progrès, Industrie, Louise, Jean-Mathieu, Insulaire and Générale Abbatucci.

He became master of the Grand Orient de France Freemason lodge "la parfaite harmonie française" in Bastia.

[13] An agreement was made on 10 July 1862 between Valéry and Édouard Vandal(fr), Director General of Posts, for the company to run a weekly postal service between Nice and alternately Ajaccio and Bastia.

The fleet was also granted the concession by the Italian state to provide the postal service between Genoa, Italy and Sicily, although all the ships flew the French flag.

[5] On 11 June 1870 Valéry's company won the concession for postal service and transport between France and Algeria, and on the eastern part of the Algerian coast.

His election was validated despite the fact that he had given senatorial electors free transport and food on one of his boats, from where they went under escort to vote.

[9] The Valéry family abandoned its business and in March 1883 sold the remaining 11 ships of its fleet to a company organized by Morelli with other Corsican capitalists to fight the Compagnie Fraissinet hegemony on Corsica.

[16] Valery's tomb, in Carrara marble is in a mausoleum a few hundred yards from the village of Erbalunga, near the Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel chapel.