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De Grandpré company

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The de Grandpré warehouse

The de Grandpré company was a 18th century shipping company headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. First established by Philippe de Grandpré, the son of a rich merchant family, the shipping company operated in the North Atlantic supplying both the Americas and Europe with products. Starting in 1768, Philippe's daughter, the Assassin Aveline de Grandpré, also became involved with the company, administering a number of ships and trade routes by herself.[1]

History[edit | edit source]

Under Phillipe[edit | edit source]

The de Grandpré company was established by Philippe as a young man, after he left his home country of France for the colony of Louisiana, where he sought better business opportunities.[2] His trading business originally focused on shipping goods from the New World across the Atlantic Ocean.[3] In 1744, while on a trade mission to Saint-Domingue, he purchased an enslaved woman named Jeanne[3] and brought her back to New Orleans to become his placée bride,[2] an action that would eventually gather the attention of the Master Templar Madeleine de L'Isle.[4]

In 1748, Madeleine, the daughter of a rival businessman to de Grandpré,[5] requested that Grand Master Reginald Birch use his influence to dampen Philippe's financial prospects, allowing her to secure a marriage with him alongside the promise of renewed stability.[4] Jeanne noted in her personal diary Philippe's success in trading in an entry dated 9 November 1749,[6] followed by mentions of "recent troubles with P—'s business" dated to 12 August 1750. In that same entry, she documents that Monsieur de L'Isle had already become an investor in the company.[7] Philippe and Madeleine's marriage was arranged in 1751[8] and took place in 1752,[3][2] a move that benefitted both families' businesses.[9]

In 1755, Gérald Blanc arrived in New Orleans at the age of 10 and became first an errand boy for the company, though by 1765, he was already working as Philippe's clerk and accountant.[10] That year, the company encountered issues of strained customer relations and disappearing shipments.[11] On 29 January,[12] after the second cargo theft in the month, Gérald went to investigate the matter further by meeting with their supplier Gilbert-Antoine de Saint Maxent, who explained that someone had impersonated him and forged his signature to steal the cargo. Aveline, having overheard the matter, decided to help with the investigation[11] by uncovering the crates' location, for which Saint-Maxent promised to give Philippe a considerable discount as thanks.[13][14] In 1776, Philippe uncovered evidence of Templar interference in the company; his attempts to root out their meddling pushed Madeleine to gradually poison him[3] with foxglove[15] under the pretense that it was an herbal tonic,[16] which eventually led to his death.[17]

Under Aveline[edit | edit source]

Though Louisianan law prohibited Aveline from inheriting his estate, Philippe had his daughter educated in business to ensure she would grow into an independent woman.[3] In 1768, Aveline began to manage the company from the de Grandpré warehouse, after Agaté and Gérald agreed that she needed a base of operations as an Assassin.[18] She eventually expanded the company, not only in the amount of ships used, but also in number of trade routes and products sold.[1]

That same year, the beverage merchant Bouché began a smear campaign about the de Grandpré company's coffee, having both erected a stall to distribute handbills claiming the coffee eroded the nerves of those who drank it[19][18] and having paid town criers to rant about the product and to push East India tea instead.[20] With the impact on sales and financial issues, Gérald asked Aveline to intervene.[18] She confronted Bouché in his warehouse and demanded a public apology, which he claimed he would comply with after she intimidated him. Some short time later, his dire financial prospects prompted him to sell off his shops, which led to Aveline buying him out, wishing to pay his slaves a proper wage and "set them on the path to freedom".[21][20]

While managing the company, Aveline also eliminated other business rivals who sought to control New Orleans economically, including some with outright Templar ties—such as the dockworker de Vandal,[22] the goods merchant Marcantell,[23] and the textiles merchant Chapperon[24]—and others with more indirect ties to the enemy, being aligned with the corrupt Spanish government and military, such as the shipwright Salmon[25] and the smuggler Reynaud.[26] She later purchased and incorporated their shops into the company, as she had done with Bouché's shops.[27]

In 1768, Aveline recruited Captain Carlos Dominguez,[28] who would remain productive until being reported missing at sea in 1803.[29] Another improvement to the company's fleet came in 1771 when, after receiving a tip from Gérald, Aveline infiltrated a Spanish controlled fort in New Orleans and retrieved blueprints for a new cannon, which helped safeguard the ships against pirate attacks.[30] After Philippe's death in 1776, the company was left to Gérald, though he considered it to rightfully belong to Aveline, remarking that the law had no place between them.[17][31]

Known ports of trade[edit | edit source]

This list compiles trade ports that were known to trade with the de Grandpré company during Aveline's administration of the business, noting the cost in écu (é) of their product demands and offerings.[1]

Port Provides (é) Demands (é)
New Orleans
(Headquarters) 		Cotton (270)
Sugar (230)
Molasses (290) 		Tobacco (500)
Pitch (160)
Fabric (1040)
Ice (900)
Veracruz Fruit (130)
Pitch (50) 		Tobacco (530)
Steel (1410)
Coffee (470)
Rum (840)
Havana Rum (650)
Tobacco (430)
Coffee (310) 		Cotton (370)
Fruit (260)
Sugar (710)
Furs (700)
Campeche Sugar (240)
Spices (900) 		Cotton (400)
Guns (1450)
Natchez Tobacco (460)
Furs (580) 		Rum (800)
Steel (1520)
Fabric (1250)
Guns (1440)
Port-au-Prince Spices (1000)
Fruit (170) 		Tobacco (500)
Fabric (960)
Steel (1160)
Ice (800)
New York Tobacco (490) Spices (1500)
Guns (1260)
Fruit (1070)
Coffee (550)
Boston Furs (440)
Ice (470) 		Steel (1300)
Sugar (560)
Molasses (700)
Bridgetown Cotton (210)
Coffee (290) 		Fruit (290)
Pitch (260)
Molasses (570)
Seville Steel (500) Rum (1400)
Spices (1900)
Tobacco (1220)
Cotton (800)
Bordeaux Fabric (230)
Pitch (25)
Guns (340) 		Sugar (1350)
Cotton (930)
Coffee (1150)
Furs (1140)
Liverpool Guns (400)
Fabric (240)
Ice (50) 		Rum (1300)
Furs (1090)
Fruit (920)

Known employees[edit | edit source]

Known investors[edit | edit source]

Products[edit | edit source]

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

Disregarding trip time and hazards, the single most profitable voyage is to send sugar from New Orleans to Bordeaux, France, which gives 1120 écu per cargo space, just 10 écu over second place, which involves sending guns from Bordeaux to Campeche, Mexico.

Appearances[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Trade system
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: An Enlightened Merchant
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Database: Philippe Olivier de Grandpré
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Assassin's Creed: Rogue – War Letters: "Arranged Marriage"
  5. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Rogue – War Letters: "Audition"
  6. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Jeanne's diary pages: Page 15
  7. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Jeanne's diary pages: Page 16
  8. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Jeanne's diary pages: Page 20
  9. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Database: Madeleine de L'Isle
  10. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Database: Gérald Blanc
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Taking Care of Business
  12. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Aveline de Grandpré: "Taking Care of Business"
  13. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Aveline de Grandpré: "Her Father's Troubles"
  14. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Father's Troubles
  15. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Erudito
  16. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – An Urgent Favor
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – The Last Dance
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Prelude to Rebellion
  19. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Aveline de Grandpré: "Prelude to Rebellion"
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Elegant and Deadly
  21. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Aveline de Grandpré: "Elegant and Deadly"
  22. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – M. de Vandal's Harbor
  23. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – M. Marcantell's Materials
  24. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – M. Chapperon's Textiles
  25. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – M. Salmon's Ships
  26. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – M. Reynaud's Bypass
  27. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
  28. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Mistress and Commander
  29. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – Database: Carlos Dominguez
  30. ↑ Assassin's Creed III: Liberation – The Cannon
  31. ↑ Assassin's Creed: Initiates – Database: Aveline de Grandpré: "The Loss of a Father"

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