Henri Brenier
Henri-Antoine-Marie-Joseph-Anatole Brenier (16 Aug 1867, Shanghai, China — 18 Feb 1962, Marseille, France) was a French journalist, economist, explorer, colonial administrator, merchant and writer who authored several studies on commercial exchanges with and from French Indochina in the 1890s, 1900s and 1910s.
Born in Shanghai to Antoinette “Isabelle” Brenier de Montmorand (1843−1883) and Georges-Albert Brenier (1833−1905) — who was director of the Shanghai branch of Messageries Maritimes, Brenier studied at Ecole des Sciences politiques in Paris, became editor-in-chief of the periodical Journal des Débats, and went back to Shanghai when he was appointed vice-director and later director of the Mission lyonnaise d’exploration commerciale en Chine [Lyon Commercial mission to China] (1895−1897), exploring Yunnan and Tonkin, traveling up to Sichuan, Lanzhou and Tatsien-Lou, then back to Hainan and Tonkin.
Back to Paris at the end of an expedition which had covered more than 20,000 kilometers, Brenier collated the massive information gathered across China, and on 6 July 1898 he joined the French Indochina administration, becoming head of the Department of Economics, General Government of Indochina from 1898 to 1914, where he deepened his interest in statistics and cartography and closely studied the opium trade. In 1901, he married Blanche de Revilliod (1875−1944) in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh Ville), and was named honorary director of Marseille Chamber of Commerce (1902−1934), where he encouraged maritime exchanges between France and China.
Founding member of the Académie des Sciences d’outré-mer (1922−1962), member of the Académie des sciences coloniales en 1922, Brenier also had an inclination to poetry, collecting poems he had written in Indochina, India, Burma, China, Japon and France in a slim volume, Laques et cloisonnés (1931).
Publications
- “Du Tonkin considéré comme voie de pénétration vers le Sze-Tchouan”, Bulletin de la Société de géographie commerciale de Paris (BSGCP), 1896.
- “Le Tonkin, principales cultures, richesses du sol, industries, commerce”, BSGCP, 1896.
- “La Mission Brenier”, Dépêche coloniale, Sept. 1897.
- La Mission lyonnaise d’exploration commerciale de la Chine, Lyon, A. Rey et Cie, 1898, 531 p.
- “Le bananier sauvage en Indochine, son utilisation possible comme textile”, Bulletin économique de l’Indochine (BECI), vol IV, 1901.
- Note sur le développement commercial de l’Indochine de 1897 a 1901 comparé avec la période quinquennale de 1892 à 1895, Hanoi, 1902.
- Le marché du sucre en Extreme-Orient, Hanoi, Schneider, 1903.
- “Répartition saisonnière des récoltes et pluviometrie en Indochine”, BECI, Nov-Dec 1908.
- [with Henri Russier, head of the Education Department in Cambodia], Géographie élémentaire de l’Indochine [with maps and diagrams by Lt. H. Bancel], Hanoi-Haiphong, 1909.
- Un livre anglais sur le Yun-nan [extract from BEFEO Jan. 1910], Hanoi-Haïphong, Imprimerie d’Extreme-Orient, in‑8, 1910.
- [with H. Russier] L’Indochine française, avec 56 gravures dans le texte et 4 cartes hors texte en couleur, Paris, Librairie Armand Colin, 1911.
- [map 1/2500.000 in] A.C. Baudenne, “A travers le Laos (Guide à l’usage des voyageurs)”, BECI, 1911.
- Essai d’atlas statistique de l’Indochine française, Hanoi-Haiphong, Gouvernement Général de l’Indochine, 1914.
- “Où en est la question de l’opium?”, BECI, n 106, 1914.
- Les ressources de l’Indochine et leur mise en valeur après la guerre, 1917.
- French Points of View, being letters to the British Press and others, Paris, 1921; facsimile Gyan Books, 2017, 67p.
- Le traité de Versailles et le problème des réparations : le point de vue français, 1921.
- Congrès de l’organisation coloniale: Présentation, 1922.
- Essai d’atlas statistique de la IXe Région économique: Basses-Alpes, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches du-Rhône, Var, Vaucluse, Gard, Corse, 1927.
- Laques et cloisonnés: Sonnets, Paris, Éditions de la Revue des Poètes, 1931, 111 p.