Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

REVENTLOW, CHRISTIAN DITLEV FREDERICK...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 223 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

REVENTLOW, See also:CHRISTIAN DITLEV See also:FREDERICK, See also:COUNT (1748-1827) , Danish statesman and reformer, the son of Privy Councillor Christian Ditlev Reventlow, See also:born on See also:March 11, 1748. After being educated at the See also:academy of Soro and at See also:Leipzig, Reventlow, in See also:company with his younger See also:brother Johan See also:Ludwig and the distinguished Saxon economist Carl See also:Wendt (1731-1815), the best of cicerones on such a tour, travelled through See also:Germany, See also:Switzerland, See also:France and See also:England, to examine the social, economical and agricultural conditions of civilized See also:Europe. A visit to See also:Sweden and See also:Norway to study See also:mining and metallurgy completed the curriculum, and when Reventlow in the course of 1770 returned to See also:Denmark he was an authority on all the economic questions of the See also:day. In 1774 he held a high position in the Kammerkollegiet, or See also:board of See also:trade, two years later he entered the See also:Department of Mines, and in 1781 he was a member of the Overskattedirectionen, or See also:chief taxing board. He had, in 1794, married Frederica See also:Charlotte von Beulwitz, who See also:bore him thirteen See also:children, and on his See also:father's See also:death in 1775 inherited the See also:family See also:estate in Laaland. Reventlow overflowed with progressive ideas, especially as regards See also:agriculture, and he devoted himself, See also:heart and soul, to the improvement of his See also:property and the amelioration of his See also:serfs. Fortunately, the ambition to See also:play a useful See also:part in a wider See also:field of activity than he could find in the See also:country ultimately prevailed. His See also:time came when the ultra-conservative See also:ministry of Hoegh Guldberg was dismissed (See also:April 14th, 1784) and Andreas See also:Bernstorff, the states-See also:man for whom Reventlow had the highest admiration, returned to See also:power. Reventlow was an excellently trained specialist in many departments, and was always See also:firm and confident in those subjects which he had made his own. Moreover, he was a man of strong and warm feelings, and deeply religious. The See also:condition of the peasantry especially interested him. He was convinced that See also:free labour would be far more profitable to the See also:land, and that the See also:peasant himself would be. better if released from his thraldom.

His favourite field of labour was thrown open to him when, on the 6th of See also:

August 1784, he was placed at the See also:head of the Rentekamtneret, which took cognisance of everything See also:relating to agriculture. His first step was to appoint a small agricultural See also:commission to better the condition of the See also:crown serfs, and amongst other things enable them to turn their leaseholds into freeholds. Observing that the Crown See also:Prince Frederick was also favourably disposed towards the amelioration of the peasantry, Reventlow induced him, in See also:July 1786, to appoint a See also:grand commission to take the condition of all the peasantry in the See also:kingdom into immediate See also:consideration. This celebrated agricultural commission continued its labours for many years, and introduced a whole See also:series of reforms of the highest importance. Thus the See also:ordinance of 8th See also:June 1787 modified the existing leaseholds, greatly to the See also:advantage of the peasantry; the ordinance of loth June 1788 abolished See also:villenage and completely transformed the much-abused hoveri See also:system whereby the feudal See also:tenant was See also:bound to cultivate his See also:lord's land as well as his own; and the ordinance of 6th See also:December 1799, which did away with hoveri altogether. Reventlow was also instrumental in starting the public See also:credit See also:banks, for enabling small cultivators to See also:borrow See also:money on favourable terms. In See also:conjunction with his friend, Heinrich See also:Ernst Schimmelmann (1747-1831), he also procured the passing of the ordinances permitting free trade between Denmark and Norway, the free importation of See also:corn from abroad, and the abolition of the mischievous See also:monopoly of the See also:Iceland trade. But the See also:financial See also:distress of Denmark, the See also:jealousy of the duchies, the ruinous See also:political complications of the See also:Napoleonic See also:period, and, above all, the Crown Prince Frederick's growing jealousy of his See also:official advisers, which led him to See also:rule, or rather See also:misrule, for years without the co-operation of his See also:Council of See also:State—all these calamities were at last too much even for Reventlow. On 7th December 1813 he received his dismissal and retired to his estates, where, after working cheerfully among his peasantry to the last, he died on the I,th of See also:October 1827. See Adolph Frederik Bergsoe, Grev. C. D.

F. Reventlows Virksomhed (See also:

Copenhagen, 1837); See also:Louis Theodor See also:Alfred Bobe, Efterl. Papirer fra den Reventlowske Familiekreds (Copenhagen, 1895-97).

End of Article: REVENTLOW, CHRISTIAN DITLEV FREDERICK, COUNT (1748-1827)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
REVELSTOKE 		[next]
REVENUE

Site © 2006 - Net Industries