Alexander Gogel

Isaac Jan Alexander Gogel (10 December 1765 – 13 June 1821) was a Dutch politician, who was the first minister of finance of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland.

Early years Gogel was born in Vught, the son of Johan Martin Gogel, a German officer in the service of the army of the Dutch Republic, and of Alexandrina Crul. He attended a French boarding school in Tilburg from 1776 to 1781. At the age of 16, he went to Amsterdam to apprentice for a career as a merchant, at the merchant house of Godart Kappel en Zoon. He started his own firm in 1791.

Batavian Revolution Gogel became politically active in 1792 when he joined the Patriot society Doctrina et Amicitia. He was a radical democrat and a unitarist. As part of the revolutionary committee in Amsterdam, he was involved with preparations for the Batavian revolution. Three times he went to the French army in the Southern Netherlands to negotiate for their support. He had to flee to Bremen at the end of October 1794, because the reigning regents in Amsterdam were arresting Patriots.

In January 1795, Gogel returned to Amsterdam after the risk of arrest had decreased. The French were entering the Netherlands to intervene, and Gogel played a major role in the peaceful takeover of the Amsterdam government for the Patriots. He became active in the local Amsterdam politics, advocating for unitarism, while his more radical democratic ideas faded away.

He was elected elector in the 1797 general election, but was not elected representative to the First National Assembly, Which he probably did not want due to his commercial activities. Gogel also declined other regional regional functions in these years. Nevertheless, he involved himself in the political developments and the creation of a constitution. Together with Willem Ockerse, he published the political journal , where they shared their perspective on the developments.

Uitvoerend Bewind (1798-1805) After the 22 January 1798, coup d'état by general Herman Willem Daendels, he was appointed agent for finance and foreign affairs (pro tem) A few years later, however, the first benefits of the new system (enhanced revenues, reduced administrative costs, formation of a national fiscal bureaucracy) had finally been realized.

Some of those reforms were of lasting importance. As the (land tax) was an important new element of the system a kadaster had to be implemented. This had important beneficial effects in the sphere of Dutch civil law, also. Other persisting reforms: in 1807 he was able to enact a law to reform the Dutch coinage. He also was instrumental in the abolition of the guilds and other economic reforms, like the abolition of internal tariffs and other obstructions to trade. He was the first director of the predecessor of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences under the Kingdom of Holland.

Like king Louis, Gogel had a difficult character. This led increasingly to personal conflicts. He resigned in 1809 because of a conflict with the king over a commission for further tax reform.

French Empire (1810-1813) After the annexation of the Netherlands in 1810, Gogel took up the duties of finance minister again, but now as intendant des finances in the part of the imperial government that was devoted to the Dutch departments of the French Empire. He did this in the illusion that he might be able to shield his compatriots from the worst excesses of the imperial administration. Legion were his attempts to persuade the government in Paris that certain allowances had to be made for special Dutch circumstances. But, these proved mostly in vain. When the French lost their grip on the Netherlands in 1813, after the accession of William I of the Netherlands, Gogel fled to France without his family. to wait for the events to unfold.

Kingdom of the Netherlands (1813-1821) He returned to the Kingdom of the Netherlands in May 1814, but he refused to take office under the new regime, which he viewed as a restoration of the pre-1795 Orangist clique that he despised (though he relented shortly before his death to become a member of the new ). He returned to private life, and started a small factory. He died soon after in 1821 in Overveen.

Personal life He married Catharina van Hasselt in 1800, and had one son and two daughters.

Titles and decorations Grootkruis Orde van de Unie, 17 February 1807 Grootkruis Orde van de Reünie, 22 February 1812 Commandeur in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, 30 June 1811 Chévalier de l'Empire, 1811

Publications "Over de nadeelen der buitenlandsche geldlichtingen", in: De Democraten, Aug. 17, 1796. "Memoriën en correspondentiën betrekkelijk den staat van 's rijk's geldmiddelen in den jaren 1820" (posthumously; edited by his son, J.M. Gogel, 1844)