Jean Monnet

Monnet got married to an Italian, Silvia Giannini, a painter by profession who was 22 years younger to him.

Silvia Giannini was already married to one of Monnet’s employee, Francisco Giannini but could not divorce her husband as per European rules. In order to materialize her second marriage, she met Monnet in Moscow in 1934 where her Soviet citizenship was applied for after which she divorced her husband and married Monnet.

Silvia had a daughter with her first husband, Anna and another one Marianne with Monnet in 1941 after which the family shifted to France in 1945.

Jean Monnet was born on 9 November, 1888 in Cognac, France in a family of merchants.

He obtained his education from local schools and colleges but left it half way at the age of sixteen when he was at the university level and moved to United Kingdom to live with his father’s official acquaintance, Mr. Chaplin.

He represented France on the Maritime Commission during World War I and was also present for the introductory meetings for the Versailles Conference as an assistant to Etienne Clémentel (the French minister of commerce and industry) wherein proposal for European cooperation via the “new economic order” was made.

At the age of 31, the French premier, Georges Clemenceau appointed him as the Deputy Secretary General and financial advisor for the League of Nations at its conception in 1919.

Due to his father’s demise, he had to give up his position in the League of Nations and return to look after the family business. Monnet played a crucial role in reorganizing and managing the family business and taking it to new heights.

Monnet moved to America in 1925 where he became a partner in a New York bank, Blair &Co., which later became Bancamerica-Blair Corporation post a merger with Bank of America in 1929.

Further down the line, he worked as a freelance economist and financial advisor to foreign governments when he taught China about the management of the railroads and Australia about the banking systems and American investment banks about capital restructuring.

As an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he analyzed the US’s under preparation for war and helped develop a plan for US to optimize its resources so as to ensure victory in the war.

Monnet was headquartered in Washington D.C during most of the war period but it was the “Victory Program” formed right in time under Roosevelt-Churchill agreement in 1941 that helped America in sustaining its economic and military position through the war period of 1942-45.

As a member of the National Liberation Committee, Monnet brought forth on 5 August, 1943, the need for a federation of European states to ensure social and economic growth.

Monnet came up with another plan called the Monnet Plan in 1945 that proposed taking over the few remaining coal producing areas (after Second World War) from Germany into France in order to weaken Germany and revitalize the French economy. The plan was considered favorable for adoption by President Gaulle in 1946.

For the economic rebuilding, the year 1949 saw another major recommendation coming from Monnet in the form of unifying the coal and steel industries of Germany and France to avoid any future rivalry. The idea was highly appreciated by the then foreign minister and the Robert Schuman and the European Coal and Steel Community was created in 1952 under the Schuman Plan (1949).