Edward Charles Blount (banker)

Sir Edward Charles Blount K.C.B. (1809–1905) was an English banker in Paris, and promoter of French railways.

Born on 16 March 1809 into a Catholic family at Bellamour, near Rugeley, Staffordshire, he was the second son of Edward Blount (1769–1843) and his wife Frances (died 1859), daughter of Francis Wright of Fitzwalters, Essex. He had four brothers, none of whom married, the eldest being Walter Blount the herald. He was sent young to Rugeley grammar school, where the local Anglican vicar was master, which at home he studied French with Father Malvoisin, an émigré Catholic priest. In 1819 he went to St Mary's College, Oscott, and stayed until 1827.

After a short time in the London office of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, he moved to the home office. Through his father he moved as a young man in Whig society, and sometimes attended breakfast parties at Holland House. In the autumn of 1829, Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, British ambassador in Paris, appointed him attaché to the embassy; next year he was transferred to the consulate at Rome. At Rome he met Cardinal Weld and Cardinal Wiseman; and at the palace of Queen Hortense he first met her son, the future Napoleon III. In 1831 he left Rome to join the Paris banking firm of Callaghan & Co. With his father's help, he soon started the bank of Edward Blount, Père et Fils, at No. 7 Rue Laffitte. The business proved successful, and he afterwards joined Charles Laffitte, nephew of Jacques Laffitte, in forming Charles Laffitte, Blount & Co., Rue Basse du Rempart.

Blount concentrated on the promotion of railway enterprises in France, where in 1836 there was just one short line, between Strassburg and Bâle. In 1838 a French government bill for the construction of seven major trunk-lines under the control of the state was defeated, and the way thrown open to private enterprise. Blount offered Jules Armand Dufaure, then minister of public works, to construct a jointly-financed line from Paris to Rouen; the proposal was accepted, and a company, the Chemin de fer de l'Ouest, was formed by Blount, who became chairman. Backers included James Rothschild and Lord Overstone, and the directors were half French and half English. The law authorising Blount's firm to construct the railway from Paris was signed by King Louis Philippe on 15 July 1840, and the line, designed by Joseph Locke with Thomas Brassey as contractor, was opened on 9 May 1843.

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