Voltaire, a Wise Investor

In class, we learned that Voltaire's speculations in the French East India Company made him rich by 1726, when he would have been just 32 years old. I was interested in Voltaire's finances because not many writers and intellectuals end up being rich. In fact, a great deal of famous writers, artists, and composers in history died poor; Voltaire's contemporary, Mozart, is known to have spent the end of his life being sued by friends for debts owed. So Voltaire the Investor was probably as smart as Voltaire the Writer.

As a young man, Voltaire was wise enough to realize that he would need to become financially independent in order to support his own writing. Thus, he cultivated friendships and relationships with the Paris brothers and other wealthy bankers, who taught him how to invest and manage his money. As a result of his wisdom, Voltaire was a millionaire by the time he was 40 years old.

Voltaire passively invested in currencies and commodities in nations all over the world, all earning profit and interest. By the time Voltaire was 55 years old, it was estimated that he earned $937,500 per year. He also had luck with the lottery. After Voltaire returned to France from exile in Great Britain, he joined up with French mathematician Charles Marie de La Condamine, who proposed buying up the lottery that was organized by the French government to pay off its debts. Voltaire earned a lot of money from this lottery. He even managed convince the Court of Finances that he was of good conduct and so was able to take control of the capital inheritance from his father that had been tied up in trust.