Jump to content

Mihail Manoilescu

From Alfawiki
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Mihail Manoilescu, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 11 August 2025
Mihail Manoilescu
Born (1891-12-09) December 9, 1891 (age 134)
Tecuci, Romania
DiedDecember 30, 1950(1950-12-30) (aged 59)
Occupation(s)Engineer, economist, politician, journalist, memoirist
Known forForeign Minister of Romania in 1940; advocacy of fascist principles and corporatist economic theories

Mihail Manoilescu (; December 9, 1891 – December 30, 1950) was a Romanian engineer, economist, politician, journalist, and memoirist who held the position of Foreign Minister of Romania during the summer of 1940. Known for his advocacy of fascist principles and antisemitic ideologies, he provided financial backing to the Iron Guard in the late 1930s. His corporatist economic theories had an impact on policy-making in various nations throughout the 1930s, particularly in Brazil.

Early years

Manoilescu was born into a politically active family in Tecuci. He was the nephew of Alexandru Bădărău, who served twice as a minister in early 20th-century Conservative governments, and descended from Moldavian nobility. His grandfather was a supporter of the Union between Moldova and Wallachia, while his father was affiliated with the Socialist Party. During his childhood, the family moved to Iași. In 1910, he earned the Gazeta Matematică award and graduated with top honors from the "Școala de Poduri și Șosele" (School of Bridges and Roads) in 1915. He initially joined the Ministry of Public Works before enlisting in an artillery regiment stationed in Roman.

When Romania entered World War I, Manoilescu served within the Directorate of Ammunitions under Tancred Constantinescu, where he designed a novel 210 mm howitzer that was manufactured after southern Romania fell under invasion by the Central Powers. Following the war, he occupied minor posts within National Liberal Party administrations, assisting General Constantinescu as Head of the Industrial Recovery Directorate and later as General Director of Industry.

Collaboration with Averescu

Manoilescu became a member of the People's Party, led by General Alexandru Averescu, and was appointed undersecretary of state during Averescu's initial cabinet. His responsibilities included overseeing projects such as organizing an Industrial Exhibition, compiling industrial statistics, and harmonizing industrial legislation. He stepped down in 1921 to further develop his expertise.

During the National Liberal Party’s resurgence to power, Manoilescu concentrated on academic research, authoring eighteen publications and gaining prominence as a speaker at conferences organized by sociologist Dimitrie Gusti. Upon returning to government service with Averescu's second administration, he contributed to drafting progressive laws concerning tariffs and salary amortization.

In 1926, while negotiating a loan in Italy ahead of a proposed friendship treaty between Romania and Italy, he encountered dictator Benito Mussolini and became an admirer of Italian fascism. He described it as "a truly constructive political revolution," equating its significance only to that of the French Revolution. Subsequently, Manoilescu participated in Italian-led international cooperation efforts such as the Comitati d'azione per l'universalità di Roma.

Trial of 1927

Manoilescu supported the idea that Carol Caraiman should be crowned King of Romania instead of his underage son Michael I. In autumn 1927, while distributing Carol’s appeals and delivering his letter to Queen Marie, he was detained under martial law imposed by Ion I. C. Brătianu’s government. With Averescu’s backing, Manoilescu was acquitted by a tribunal subordinate to the Council of War in late November.

His testimony—highlighted by Time magazine—claimed that Carol was concerned about growing republican sentiment and intended only to join the Regency. He stated:

"The Prince is too loyal and decent to think of dethroning his own son."

He accused government officials of attempting to bribe him into silence and alleged that King Ferdinand had urged Brătianu to permit Carol’s return before his death. Manoilescu speculated that Ferdinand supported a regency only as long as Carol acted irresponsibly and had no plans to exclude him from succession. Averescu endorsed this interpretation, citing his role mediating between Ferdinand and Carol.

The acquittal surprised many observers amid rumors that Premier Brătianu had pressured for a guilty verdict. During the trial, foreign journalists experienced cut international phone lines, forcing them to cross into Bulgaria repeatedly to file their reports.

Camarilla

Following Carol's reinstatement as Carol II in 1930, Manoilescu gained prominence within the king's inner circle, known as the camarilla. He held the position of Minister of Economy in several National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) governments led by Iuliu Maniu, Gheorghe Mironescu, and Nicolae Iorga between 1931 and 1932. In the same year, he secured election to the Assembly of Deputies representing Caraș County. His political adversaries accused him of fabricating documents and facilitating the return of Carol's consort, Magda Lupescu.

Manoilescu asserted that he played a role in obtaining the release of Mihai Gheorghiu Bujor, who had been incarcerated for Bolshevik activism, leveraging both published articles and interventions with King Carol—although it was Maniu’s firm stance against political imprisonment that was ultimately decisive.

He emerged as a competitor to PNȚ figure Virgil Madgearu; according to critical reports, Manoilescu attempted to discredit Madgearu using a falsified document but was uncovered by Carol himself. This incident fueled internal strife within the PNȚ, eventually prompting Manoilescu’s exit from the party.

In 1931, while serving as governor of the National Bank of Romania and teaching political economy at the Polytechnic Institute, Manoilescu opposed deploying state resources to save Marmorosch Blank Bank. This stance brought him into conflict with King Carol and resulted in his dismissal in November. Subsequently, he took on the role of editor for Lumea Nouă, a publication advancing his viewpoints, and founded the Liga Național-Corporatistă (National-Corporatist League) in 1932. From 1932 until 1937, he held a Senate seat as a representative of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce.

Political and economic theories

In 1929, while in Paris, Manoilescu released the inaugural edition of The theory of protectionism and international exchanges through Giard publishing. His promotion of industrialization was central to his 1942 work The role and destiny of Romania's bourgeoisie, which stands alongside contributions from Ştefan Zeletin and Eugen Lovinescu as a foundational text on fostering a domestic middle class. This publication also reflected his endorsement of authoritarianism and a single-party system, dismissing democracy as flawed because it empowered the majority peasant population to influence issues beyond their expertise. He criticized Romania’s bourgeoisie for an excessively consumerist lifestyle that prioritized expenditure over wealth accumulation, contrasting this with Western bourgeoisie who emphasize security and long-term investment.

Manoilescu integrated elements from Poporanist thought regarding capital and its international movements, drawing inspiration from figures like Constantin Stere and Marxist theorist Werner Sombart. He maintained that national economic progress depended on limiting engagement with global markets while stimulating domestic demand for indigenous industry.

His periodical advocated nationalist and racist perspectives, promoting corporatism as essential to "Romanianization" and asserting that Romania’s racial identity aligned with Aryan Europe. Additionally, Manoilescu supported the antisemitic policies enacted by the government under Alexandru Vaida-Voevod.

Manoilescu’s corporatist and protectionist doctrines influenced Brazil’s industrialization during its Estado Novo era, shaping perceptions that industry was more productive than agriculture or raw material extraction. His theories affected economists such as Celso Furtado and Raúl Prebisch, indirectly contributing to the establishment of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Despite facing criticism from neoclassical economists, his ideas found favor within Brazilian business sectors and were cited by Poland’s Lewiatan Group. Alongside French economist François Perroux, he played a key role in introducing corporatism to Brazil during the 1930s through translations of his works that facilitated its adoption.

Throughout the Interwar period, Manoilescu’s writings circulated widely across Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, and to a lesser extent Argentina. His advocacy for autarkic economic policies has been likened to Stalinist approaches and later influenced Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, who regarded Manoilescu’s theories as significant contributions to understanding underdevelopment.

Iron Guard

By the end of the 1930s, Manoilescu had aligned himself with the fascist Iron Guard, anticipating that it would transform into a corporatist movement to legitimize its national revolution objectives. He contributed a portion of his land to one of its ventures and covertly supported the Guard’s publication, Buna Vestire. This ideological transition was ridiculed by his former associates in the National Peasants' Party, who viewed it as an opportunistic attempt to connect with rising political forces.

During the 1937 election, Manoilescu stood for the Senate representing the Everything for the Fatherland Party, a proxy organization for the Iron Guard. Observers noted that many prominent individuals refused similar candidacies, leaving Manoilescu as the party’s lone contender. Around this time, he reassessed his industrial policies and economic self-reliance ideas, promoting Romania’s development through raw material exports to Nazi Germany.

Foreign minister

In July 1940, amid territorial upheavals following the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, Manoilescu was appointed foreign minister within Ion Gigurtu’s pro-fascist cabinet. Confronted with Hungary’s Axis-supported demands for border revisions under the Treaty of Trianon, he attempted unsuccessfully to enlist Italian mediation. To reduce regional friction, he proposed ceding Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria, culminating in the Treaty of Craiova.

On August 30, as Romania’s foreign minister aligned with Axis powers, Manoilescu endorsed the Second Vienna Award, which divided Transylvania between Hungary and Romania. Upon witnessing the enforced territorial partition at Belvedere Palace, he fainted while Hungarian delegates celebrated.

In September 1940, Manoilescu engaged in talks with Soviet representatives amid shifting alliances following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and ongoing European turmoil. He conveyed Romania’s respectful posture toward Moscow, Berlin, and Rome and refuted Soviet claims regarding alleged new border incidents.

1940s, imprisonment and death

After the Transylvanian settlement, the Iron Guard under Horia Sima assumed power in 1940 and excluded Manoilescu from leadership positions. He briefly held the Foreign Minister post in the First Antonescu cabinet from July 4 to September 14, 1940. Following the Iron Guard's 1941 uprising, he endorsed Ion Antonescu’s authoritarian regime. In late 1940, he acted as Romania’s envoy in Rome, pressing Italian authorities to investigate Hungarian abuses in Northern Transylvania; in July 1942, he traveled to the Independent State of Croatia to cooperate on a Southeast European economic survey.

On October 12, 1944, after Romania signed an armistice with the United Nations, Manoilescu was detained without formal charges for fourteen months and dismissed from his role at the Polytechnic Institute. Due to harsh prison conditions, he contracted endemic typhus and required hospitalization in Colentina, Bucharest. Upon his release in December 1945, he resumed scientific work and championed geothermal energy development in Romania; several innovations were patented under his son Alexandru’s name.

Manoilescu was arrested again by Communist authorities on December 19, 1948. He was imprisoned at Jilava Prison and subsequently at Ocnele Mari, where he participated in an “underground academy” alongside philosopher Petre Țuțea. Eventually transferred to Sighet Prison, he passed away there in late 1950 due to heart complications exacerbated by typhus and inadequate medical treatment. His remains were interred in a mass grave. In 1951, he was posthumously tried for his journalistic activities and sentenced in absentia to fifteen years imprisonment, a decade-long suspension of civil rights, and property confiscation—an unprecedented verdict. His family only became aware of his death in May 1958.

Honors

Manoilescu is chiefly recognized in the field of economics for the "Manoilescu argument," which supports shifting excess labor from low-efficiency agricultural activities toward sectors with greater productivity, such as manufacturing.

On April 14, 2016, the National Bank of Romania released commemorative coins celebrating three former governors, including Manoilescu, who briefly served as the bank’s leader in 1931. His presence on the coin series prompted objections from both the U.S. Embassy in Romania and the Wiesel Institute, due to his promotion of Fascist ideology and antisemitic views prior to World War II. Despite these protests, the bank chose not to retract the coin issuance.

In addition, a high school in Ploiești carries his name, and a street in Tecuci is also named in his honor.

References

External links

Related profiles

MMugur IsărescuAAntónio Júlio de Castro FernandesIIon GigurtuIIoan Kalinderu
Retrieved from "https://www.alfawiki.org/index.php?title=Mihail_Manoilescu&oldid=60856"