UMA GRANDE FAMÍLIA

Abstract

Portador de um dos mais prestigiosos titulos e nomes, herdeiro de uma grande familia da nobreza militar que “serviu a Franca por 500 anos”, ex-aluno da Ecole Polytechnique, diretor-presidente de uma das filiais da Schneider, o decimo segundo duque de Brissac, que se casou com May Schneider, uma descendente de uma das maiores familias de industriais, e a realizacao do aristocrata perfeito, possuindo um notavel conjunto de qualidades e caracteristicas distintivas. O capital social herdado de sua familia e que ele jamais deixou de manter e valorizar, ao mesmo tempo em que sabia, ocasionalmente, reconverte-lo, esta, sem duvida, na raiz desta concentracao de riquezas. Centro de uma rede de relacoes com uma extensao e densidade excepcionais, o duque de Brissac adquiriu desde a infância, nos estabelecimentos de ensino secundario de “boa companhia” que frequentou, a arte e o gosto de cultivar as relacoes herdadas, e de as ampliar. A analise das memorias do duque de Brissac e de varias obras escritas por outros membros de sua familia permitiu reconstruir a historia desse empreendimento de acumulacao e gestao de capital social. Palavras-chave : Capital social. Redes de relacoes. Historia. Brissac. A GREAT FAMILY The bearer of one of the most prestigious titles and names, the heir to a great family of the military nobility in which “they have served France for 500 years”, a former pupil of the Ecole Polytechnique, managing-director of one of the sister-companies of the Schneider Corporation, the Twelfth Duke of Brissac, who married May Schneider, a descendant of one of the greatest ironmasters families, is the realisation of the perfect aristocrat, possessing a remarkable aggregate of qualities and distinctive features. The social assets handed down to him by his family which he has constantly built up, maintained and exploited while knowing, whenever the occasion demanded, how to reconvert it, are, without doubt at the root of this concentration of riches. At the focal point of an exceptionally widespread and dense network of relations, the Duke of Brissac has acquired, from infancy and later in “well-bred” High Schools, a taste for cultivating and extending the kinship networks devolved on him through inheritance. The analysis of the memoirs of the Duke of Brissac and of several works written by other members of his family has enabled the author to trace the history of this pursuit of the accumulation and management of social assets. Keywords : Social capital. Networks. Family. History. Brissac.