Antoni Tyzenhaus

Who was Antoni Tyzenhaus?

Antoni Tyzenhaus was a noble from the Tyzenhaus family, son of Benedykt Tyzenhaus. As a personal friend of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Tyzenhaus became Treasurer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and administrator of royal estates. He began to implement various agricultural reforms and pioneered industrialization in an effort to increase productivity and economic power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At first he was successful and managed to gain considerable political influence; he was considered to be the second man after the King. However, the efforts were based on the old system of serfdom and failed. Eventually, amidst increasing political rivalry with other nobles and mounting debts, Tyzenhaus was accused of fraud and removed from public offices in 1780.