Jean Pâris de Monmartel

At the height of his fortunes he had 370,000 livres invested in the powerful Société d'Angola,[2][3] set up to deal in the Atlantic slave trade, managed by Antoine Walsh, the richest and most famous of the Irish of Nantes.

Jean spent his early years at Moirans in the family business, and was a soldier for a time before joining his older brothers Antoine and Claude in Paris.

[6] There he benefited from the valuable network of contacts they had built up, which enabled him in his turn to begin ascending the ladder of society: as early as 1704 he had been made Intendant General of the Army of Flanders.

The grain trade was particularly profitable at this time, when transport was primitive, and where the slightest shortage sent prices soaring, benefitting whoever had the means of managing large volumes of stock.

The park consisted of a series of basins, with great banks of flowers, statues, a long canal and a waterfall, powered by a machine created by Laurent [fr].

The bankruptcy of John Law meant that the Paris brothers were recalled from exile, and the Regent Orleans entrusted them with the operation du visa, aiming to restore confidence in France's shattered finances.

Jean and his brother Joseph also took advantage of another favourable circumstance to move closer to the centre of power – the death of Fleury and the arrival at court of Madame de Pompadour.

The Maréchal de Saxe wrote of Monmartel and his brother Duverney: "These are two people who do not wish to appear and who, fundamentally, are very strong in this country because they keep the entire machine running.