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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) 1.

Is there a connection between Claude Monet and Jean Monnet? No. They are homonyms and both were owners of houses with a vast garden located west of Paris. An Impressionist painter, Claude Monet lived in Giverny in the Eure d�partement, while Jean Monnet's house is in the small hamlet of Houjarray near Bazoches-sur-Guyonne in the Yvelines d�partement. One marked the history of art and the other marked history. 2.

What was the social background of Jean Monnet? Jean Monnet was born on 9th November 1888 in Cognac in the Charente d�partement. He came from a family of cognac merchants. In 1897, his father, Jean-Gabriel Monnet, became manager of a Cognac cooperative, the Cognac Wingrowers Company (SPCV), which then changed its name to J.G. Monnet & Co. A family of simple, rural origins, the Monnets quickly became wealthy with the father's enterprise in the cognac trade. Jean Monnet's mother, Maria Demelle, the daughter of a former barrel maker who became the cellarmaster at Hennessy Cognac, was a faithful Christian while her husband was agnostic. They gave Jean Monnet two sisters � Marie-Louise, the only woman auditor at the Vatican II Council, and Henriette, the wife of the jeweller Marcel Chaumet � and a brother, Gaston, who handled cognac sales on the domestic market. Referring to his origins in the Charente region, Jean Monnet commented in his M�moires: "The people of Cognac were not nationalist at a time when France was. [�] undoubtedly the conditions were already there which made it natural for me one day to do what seemed necessary to put men to work together who were separated by artificial obstacles." [Jean Monnet, M�moires, Fayard, 1976, p. 45]. 3.

What was Jean Monnet's education? Jean Monnet left the Cognac High School when he was sixteen, after he had taken the first part of his university-entrance examinations. "I never liked school. I refused, or some difficulty kept me from learning a formal science by heart. When my parents wanted to put me in boarding school in Pons, I became ill." [M�moires, p. 39]. Monnet's "native intelligence" would flourish more in the cognac business than in a school room: "�through this thing [cognac], we had an immense field of observation and a very active exchange of ideas. There, or beginning there, I learned about people, international business, more than I would have with a formal education. All I had to do was to watch and listen." [M�moires, p. 39]. And Jean Monnet concluded: "Why should I have taken a detour studying law in a student's room in Poitiers, when I could easily enter the school of life and visit the world?" [M�moires, p. 40]. 4.

What was Jean Monnet's first job? At the age of sixteen, Jean Monnet was trained by an agent of the Monnet company, Mr. Chaplin, who introduced him to the City of London and the world of business. From 1904 to 1906, the young Monnet learned the job of wine merchant as well as the language of the business, English. The stay was a turning point for him: "That was where I learned about co-authored action, of which I did not see such a serious example in Cognac or anywhere in France." [M�moires, p. 46]. After his London stay, Jean Monnet at age eighteen was sent by his father to Canada - his first long trip. As he left, Jean-Gabriel gave his parting advice: "Do not take any books. No one can think for you. Look out of the window, talk to people, pay attention to the person who is next to you." [M�moires, p. 47]. Jean Monnet thus represented the family company on the international markets and from 1906 to 1914, he spent more time abroad, in North America, England, Scandinavia, Russia, Egypt�than even in France. 5.

Why was Jean Monnet not called up for military service in 1914? Young Jean Monnet had fragile health. In 1913, at the age of twenty-five, he had hardly recovered from appendicitis when he came down with typhoid fever. But more importantly, the recruitment lists of young men in the 1904 class in Cognac show that Jean Monnet was turned down for military service following a medical examination which revealed lung problems. In his M�moires, Monnet explained: "I was turned down for health reasons and no responsibility awaited me at home. And yet I could not remain inactive. I had to serve as I could, in the place where I would be most useful." 6.

What r�le did Jean Monnet play during the First World War? In 1914, Jean Monnet was twenty-six years old. On his return from business trips to Canada via London and Paris, he learned of the general mobilization at the Poitiers Train Station. After a month of fighting to the disadvantage of the Allied Forces, Jean Monnet quickly realized "�that the forms of power had changed, that the war machine was being called on to grind down all the resources of a nation and that it was necessary to invent unprecedented forms of organization�.I wanted to do something that would make people realize that it was necessary to act quickly. I did not know to whom I should speak. [M�moires, p. 52]. Through the good offices of the family company's lawyer, Fernand Benon, Monnet obtained an interview with the President of the Council, Ren� Viviani, to whom he exposed his views: "There is an immense waste, the merchant fleets have not been requisitioned for understandable reasons, but the present competitive situation is not without absurdity. No priority has been defined�.The interallied cooperative bodies are insufficient." [Eric Roussel, Jean Monnet, Fayard, 1996, p. 52]. Monnet's idea was innovative: create an Allied maritime-transport committee which would be responsible for controlling all the Allied ships, their technical capacities, movements and freight. Sent to London in 1914, Jean Monnet was to contribute to the elaboration of this "Pool" of Franco-British ships throughout the War. Although ineligible for military service, Jean Monnet successfully served his country and the cause of peace. From this experience, Jean Monnet was to remember that the interdependence of nations appeared inevitable from that point on. 7.

What job did Jean Monnet have in 1919? With the signature of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the League of Nations, the ancester of the United Nations, was created. Because of his efficiency observed during the war years in the creation and operation of the inter-Ally organizations and his experience in international cognac sales, Jean Monnet now disposed of an extensive network of relations and a solid acquaintance with the post-war financial and economic decision makers. Supported by Cl�menceau and Lord Balfour, the League of Nations appointed this 31-year-old provincial man to the post of Deputy Secretary General. Jean Monnet stayed in the post for four years at the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva. He assisted the Secretary General, Sir Eric Drummond, in executing technical decisions. 8.

Why did Jean Monnet resign from the League of Nations? In a letter of 18th December 1923, Jean Monnet sent his resignation to Sir Eric Drummond: "As I indicated to you, family obligations make it necessary for me to resign as Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations�." [Roussel, p. 104]. As it did before the war, the Monnet company was indeed going through a crisis which was affecting the entire brandy sector of Cognac. In 1923, Marie-Louise Monnet travelled to Geneva to ask her brother to come and take over the firm. Officially, Jean Monnet let it be known that he was not leaving the League of Nations out of discouragement or disenchantment, but indeed out of "family obligations". However, in 1970, he wrote: "The League has been a dissapointment�.During the war, the pooling of resources and the Allied organization resulted from a joint effort, but I had forgotten that this joint effort resulted from the war, from the absolute necessity to agree.�In settling problems, the governments looked out for their own interests and not for the solution to the problems themselves. The events in which I was deeply entwined have marked my entire life and still influence my activity." [Roussel, p. 102]. 9.

What did Jean Monnet do between the two World Wars? On his return to the Charente region in 1924, Jean Monnet began to reestablish the financial balance of the family firm, but after his experience in London during the War and his time at the League of Nations, he sensed that his calling was no longer in the cognac business. He turned over the administration of the business to his cousins and considered entering international activities once again. At that point, he was contacted by a U.S. investment firm based in New York, Blair & Co. The work of investment bankers was to issue stocks and to invest public loans secured on the guarantees offered by governments: "�in the case of countries still badly unstable after the deep upheavals of the war, it was the national currency itself that had to be redressed and stabilized." [M�moires, p. 121]. Monnet became the Vice President of the French branch of Blair & Co. and in this position, he played an important r�le in the monetary stabilization of France in 1926. In 1927, he participated in the economic recovery of Poland and in the stabilization of its currency, the zloty; in 1928, he pursued the same activity in Roumania. In 1929, Jean Monnet founded and co-presided over a large U.S. bank in San Francisco, the Bancamerica-Blair. Thanks to cognac, Jean Monnet became an expert in sales and marketing. At the League of Nations, he became well acquainted with legal and diplomatic mechanisms. At the end of the 1920s, experience in banking and international high finance further expanded his expertise. Jean Monnet was then 41 years old. 10. Did Jean Monnet marry? Did he have children? In 1929, Jean Monnet's life took a new direction. In the course of a dinner party given at his home, this "hardened bachelor" [Roussel, p. 133] met the wife of one of his collaborators, Francisco Giannini. Jean Monnet fell in love with Silvia, n�e Bondini, a 22-year-old Italian woman and his love was quickly reciprocated. But France did not allow divorce. "I tried to find a solution to marry my wife in all possible countries imaginable: in Italy, the United States and even elsewhere, but I discovered when I was alone in Shanghai that even in China, I could not find a solution." [Roussel, p. 157]. For five years, his lawyer friends studied the possibilities for getting out of the impasse in which the couple found themselves, all to no avail. A doctor whom Monnet had known earlier at the League of Nations, the future founder of UNICEF Ludwik Rajchman (connected at the time to the Soviet Ambassador to China, Bogomolov) advised Monnet to be married in the USSR. Under Soviet law, it was possible for Silvia to divorce there and to remarry. On 13th November 1934, the couple accordingly met in Moscow. Silvia took Soviet nationality, divorced unilaterally � which the law of the country permitted � in order to finally legally marry her husband. Thirty years later, a religious marriage ceremony was celebrated in Lourdes. The couple had two children: Anna and Marianne. 11. Why did Jean Monnet go to China? First, Ludwik Rajchman, a friend of Jean Monnet's, went to China on a mission for the League of Nations. During his visit, he observed the problems confronting the country and suggested that Monnet to go to work there. Monnet arrived in China for the first time in 1933 for a brief visit. Later, the brother-in-law of Chiang Kai-shek, Dr. T. V. Soong, in his capacity as minister and special advisor in the Kuomingtang, met Monnet during a trip to Europe. On Rajchman's recommendation, Dr. Soong summoned Monnet to China in order to implement a reconstruction plan capable of attracting international capital. While Jean Monnet was invited by the Chinese government, his mission remained private rather than mandated by the League of Nations. (Japan, a member of the League of Nations and an enemy of China, remained opposed to Monnet's mission.) Nevertheless, from 1934 to 1936, Jean Monnet participated in the reorganization of China's railways and finance. From this experience, Jean Monnet remembered: "While it was easy for me to deal with T. V. Soong, whose culture was European, I never stopped learning the art of negotiating with traditional Chinese businessmen. It took me a long time to understand that in China, one should not ask for a reply but guess it�". [M�moires, p. 134]. 12. Why did Jean Monnet envisage the complete union of France and the United Kingdom in June 1940? In December 1939, Jean Monnet assumed his duties in London as President of the Franco-British Coordination Committee. The object of the Committee was to coordinate the action of five permanent executive offices which had been created on 18th October 1939 by an agreement signed by Daladier and Chamberlain: those in charge of fresh supplies, arms and raw materials, fuel, aeronautics and maritime transport. In the midst of the War, these offices were intended to establish a programme of needs and an inventory of resources; to ensure the optimum use of them; and to determine the common Allied import programmes to be carried out by a single purchase body. In his London office in the spring of 1940, Jean Monnet envisaged an even closer rapprochement between the two Allied countries: "As persuaded as I was that the only way of winning this war, like the previous war, was to pool the material resources and production potential of the two countries, it seemed increasingly clear to me that the necessary union would have to take on other dimensions from the start. [�]. In that spring of 1940, history was rolling forward at the speed of the tanks and a bold move was required to dominate its course, one capable of striking imaginations and overcoming the material and psychological obstacles which were delaying the Allies' unified action."