Jean Laborde
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Jean Laborde (16 October 1805 in Auch - 27 December 1878 in Madagascar) was the first French consul to Madagascar, where the government of Napoléan III used him to establish French influence on the island. He became the chief engineer of the Merina monarchy, supervising the creation of a modern manufacturing center.
Laborde was shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar in the 1840's and soon after was granted large tracts of land and unlimited labor.
Laborde had some engineering background. With the help of five other Europeans, he set up a manufacturing and engineering center. They had no imported machinery beyond simple blacksmith's tools and no documents, but within a few years were producing: iron (cast and wrought), steel (via the crucible method), muskets, gunpowder, light cannons, metal-working lathes, watermills, window and blown glass, machine-spun cotton, spinning machinery, and power looms.
Laborde built a complete industrial complex. Within 6 years, he had blast furnaces with waterwheel-powered draught producing cast iron, puddling mills producing wrought iron, a steeling plant producing spring steel, a glassworks, brickworks and cement-plant, a heavy foundry capable of producing 24-pound cannons, a musket factory, a gunpowder mill, a tower to make lead shot, and textile mills.
Laborde also built a 4-story palace covered with mirrors, and opened up mines, roads, and bridges in various parts of the island. He built ox and horse-wagons and a short (horse-drawn) stretch of railway.
By the time the king supporting him died, Laborde had 15,000 men working for him.
