# Voltaire

The first fact about Voltaire is a rent. On 1 January 1722 he inherited Compagnie des Indes shares in a company that held slave-trade privileges. History Workshop Journal 2022, using [Lopez](/people/leopoldo-lopez)’s archival work, treats those rents as weighty. Nantes’s public museum independently frames the company’s traffic. Candide’s Surinam page (1759) is a different instrument. HWJ notes later anti-colonial sentences coinciding with lost capital after the Seven Years’ War. A 23 April 1760 letter still placed a good part of his fortune on the company.

The 1764 Dictionnaire prints group contempt for Jews. Mahomet (1741) uses a prophet as fraud. Polygenist paragraphs teach separate origins. Potsdam 1750 is a king’s wage. Catherine’s correspondence is autocratic advertising. Ferney 1759 is a bought seigneurie. The 1729 lottery is a public-to-private transfer. La Barre dies in 1766 with the Dictionnaire. Écrasez l’infâme polarises. 1791 puts the corpse in the Panthéon.

The offsets are also documents. Lettres philosophiques (1733–34) bring Newton and English toleration into French, then burn. Cirey with du Châtelet is a working scientific household. Encyclopédie articles, the Lisbon poem, Candide, Traité sur la tolérance, Calas 1765, Sirven 1771, Ferney watches, Lally 1778, Oxford’s Complete Works from 1968, Geneva 1954, CMN Ferney — access and, in the campaigns, minority-rights litigation inside an absolutist council.

What the score must not say: that he is an abolitionist because of Candide; that Calas makes the Dictionnaire kind; that Frederick was a republic; that a 1954 museum undid a 1722 share. Complex contribution is the honest type. Confidence is high on imprints, the 1765 rehabilitation, the 1759 deed, and the 1722 inheritance as now synthesised; medium on any one ship’s cargo knowledge.

Related people are du Châtelet, Frederick, Catherine, Rousseau as rival, Diderot, d’Alembert, Calas, La Barre, Louis XV, Newton, Locke — specific roles, not a pad.

1722 is not 1759. 1763 is not 1764.

If a contract showed he underwrote a named slaving voyage with full cargo knowledge, that row would tighten. Until then, company privilege plus letters of fortune are enough to store, and not enough to invent a captaincy. Keep company, Calas, Dictionnaire, and Potsdam on separate dates; mixing them is how a marble grin gets built and how a pamphlet gets built. Voltaire is scored from dated instruments, not from a later museum caption or a later encyclopedia heading. Shared work remains named. Voltaire is scored from dated public instruments, not from a later museum caption. Shared work with named collaborators, later editors, and institutions remains named. Complex contribution is the honest type where later carriers are the surviving public file. Day-precision is not invented where the named records are year-level. 1722-01-01 (cost, driver `humanitarian-access`): Voltaire inherits Compagnie des Indes shares whose company held slave-trade privilege — Racial Capitalism in Voltaire’s Enlightenment (History Workshop Journal 2022) (https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/doi/10.1093/hwj/dbac025/6693575); Château des ducs de Bretagne / Nantes history museum (slave-trade port context) (https://www.chateaunantes.fr/en/). 1764-01-01 (cost, driver `protection-of-minority-rights`): The Dictionnaire philosophique prints anti-Jewish articles under Voltaire’s name — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Voltaire (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/). 1750-07-10 (cost, driver `democratic-resilience`): Voltaire takes up paid residence at Frederick II’s Potsdam court — Sanssouci Palace — Prussian Palaces and Gardens (https://www.spsg.de/en/palaces-gardens/object/sanssouci-palace/); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). 1763-01-01 (offset, driver `protection-of-minority-rights`): Voltaire publishes Traité sur la tolérance after the Calas execution — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/); Britannica — Jean Calas (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Calas). 1759-02-09 (cost, driver `income-inequality`): Voltaire buys the seigneurie of Ferney as a border estate — Château de Voltaire à Ferney — Centre des monuments nationaux (https://www.chateau-ferney-voltaire.fr/); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). 1760-01-01 (offset, driver `industrial-policy-activism`): Ferney develops watchmaking and silk workshops under Voltaire’s seigneurial patronage — Château de Voltaire à Ferney — Centre des monuments nationaux (https://www.chateau-ferney-voltaire.fr/); Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/). 1763-01-01 (cost, driver `democratic-resilience`): Voltaire opens a long paid correspondence of praise with Catherine II — Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/); Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/). 1741-08-09 (cost, driver `protection-of-minority-rights`): Le Fanatisme, ou Mahomet is staged in Lille as an anti-prophet tragedy — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/); Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/). 1717-05-16 (cost, driver `personal-data-protection`): Voltaire is sent to the Bastille by lettre de cachet — Archives nationales (France) (https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). 1718-11-18 (offset, driver `social-cohesion`): Oedipe succeeds at the Comédie-Française and the author takes the name Voltaire — Académie française — Voltaire (https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/voltaire); Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/). 1746-05-02 (offset, driver `social-cohesion`): Voltaire is elected to the Académie française — Académie française — Voltaire (https://www.academie-francaise.fr/les-immortels/voltaire); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). 1756-01-01 (offset, driver `infectious-disease-transmission`): Voltaire publishes the Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne — Gallica — Voltaire printed works (https://gallica.bnf.fr/); Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Voltaire (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/). 1771-01-01 (offset, driver `protection-of-minority-rights`): The Sirven family obtains rehabilitation after Voltaire’s long campaign — Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). 1778-02-10 (offset, driver `social-cohesion`): Voltaire returns to Paris to a public apotheosis and dies there on 30 May — Musée Carnavalet — Voltaire portraits (https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/en); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). 1762-01-01 (cost, driver `political-polarization`): Voltaire’s correspondence slogan écrasez l’infâme becomes a public anticlerical programme — Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/); Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/). 1729-01-01 (cost, driver `income-inequality`): Voltaire and La Condamine exploit a Paris lottery structure for a private fortune — Cambridge Companion to Voltaire (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-voltaire/); Britannica — Voltaire (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire). 1999-01-01 (offset, driver `social-cohesion`): The French monuments service opens Ferney as a national historic monument visit — Château de Voltaire à Ferney — Centre des monuments nationaux (https://www.chateau-ferney-voltaire.fr/); Institut et Musée Voltaire — Geneva (https://www.bge-geneve.ch/en/institut-et-musee-voltaire). 1734-01-01 (cost, driver `protection-of-minority-rights`): Voltaire’s printed racial polygenism treats some peoples as separately originated — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Voltaire (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/); Racial Capitalism in Voltaire’s Enlightenment (History Workshop Journal 2022) (https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/doi/10.1093/hwj/dbac025/6693575). 1760-04-23 (cost, driver `institutional-corruption`): [Voltaire writes that a good part of his fortune sits on the Compagnie as India war ruins it](/facts/vo-seven-years-company-loss) — Racial Capitalism in Voltaire’s Enlightenment (History Workshop Journal 2022) (https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/doi/10.1093/hwj/dbac025/6693575); Voltaire Foundation — University of Oxford (https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/).

## Dated facts

- 1999: The French monuments service opens Ferney as a national historic monument visit. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-cmn-ferney-museum. Sources: https://www.bge-geneve.ch/en/institut-et-musee-voltaire, https://www.chateau-ferney-voltaire.fr/.
- 1968: The Voltaire Foundation begins the critical Complete Works at Oxford. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-oxford-complete-works. Sources: https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/.
- 1954: The Institut et Musée Voltaire opens in Geneva as a public research house. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-imv-geneva-1954. Sources: https://www.bge-geneve.ch/en/institut-et-musee-voltaire, https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/.
- 1791: Revolutionary France translates Voltaire’s remains into the Panthéon. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-pantheon-1791. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire, https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/.
- 1778: Louis XVI’s council rehabilitates Lally-Tollendal after Voltaire’s last Paris campaign. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-lally-1778. Sources: https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/, https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/.
- 1778: Voltaire returns to Paris to a public apotheosis and dies there on 30 May. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-return-paris-1778. Sources: https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/en, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire.
- 1771: The Sirven family obtains rehabilitation after Voltaire’s long campaign. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-sirven-1771. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire, https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/.
- 1766: The chevalier de La Barre is executed; Voltaire’s campaign fails to save him. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-la-barre-1766. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Voltaire, https://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/.
- 1765: The royal council rehabilitates Jean Calas after Voltaire’s campaign. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-calas-1765. Sources: https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Calas.
- 1764: The Dictionnaire philosophique prints anti-Jewish articles under Voltaire’s name. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-dictionnaire-1764. Sources: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/, https://gallica.bnf.fr/.
- 1763: Voltaire opens a long paid correspondence of praise with Catherine II. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-catherine-correspondence. Sources: https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521849739, https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/.
- 1763: Voltaire publishes Traité sur la tolérance after the Calas execution. https://factrail.ai/facts/vo-traite-tolerance-1763. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Calas, https://gallica.bnf.fr/.

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/voltaire