Editing Paul Reuter (section)

==Life and career==
Reuter was born in a [[Jews|Jewish]] family as Israel Beer Josaphat in [[Kassel]], [[Electorate of Hesse]] (now part of the [[Federal Republic of Germany]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e231880/Personalities/Paul_Julius_Von_Reuter|title=Paul Julius Von Reuter|publisher=ANU Museum of the Jewish People|year=1996|archive-date=22 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622082537/https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e231880/Personalities/Paul_Julius_Von_Reuter|url-status=live}}</ref> His father, Samuel Levi Josaphat, was a [[rabbi]]. His mother was Betty Sanders. In [[Göttingen]], Reuter met [[Carl Friedrich Gauss]], who was experimenting with the [[transmission (telecommunications)|transmission]] of [[electric]]al signals via wire.<ref name=":0" />

On 16 November 1845, he converted to Christianity in a ceremony at [[St George's German Lutheran Church|St. George's German Lutheran Chapel]] in London,<ref name= "encyclopedia.com" /> and changed his name to Paul Julius Reuter. One week later, in the same chapel, he married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus of [[Berlin]], daughter of a German banker.<ref name="jew"/>

A former bank clerk, in 1847 he founded Reuter and Stargardt, a Berlin book-publishing firm, with [[Joseph Abraham Stargardt]]. The distribution of radical pamphlets by the firm at the beginning of the [[Revolutions of 1848|1848 Revolution]] may have focused official scrutiny on Reuter. Later that year, he left for Paris<ref>{{Citation | url = https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Julius-Freiherr-von-Reuter | title = Paul Julius, baron von Reuter | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | year = 1998}}.</ref> and worked in [[Charles-Louis Havas]]' news agency, [[Havas|Agence Havas]], the future [[Agence France Presse]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Lennon|first=Troy|date=2016-07-20|title=Brilliant clerk turned old news into the news of the day|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://dailytelegraph.com.au/news/bank-clerk-paul-reuter-turned-old-news-into-news-of-the-day/news-story/e7618d50cf176f7ee5063be9b96eaf3c|access-date=2021-11-12}}</ref>

As [[electrical telegraph]]y evolved, Reuter founded his own news agency in [[Aachen]]. Until the entire distance was connected by telegraph, messages were transferred on the leg between Brussels and Aachen using [[homing pigeon]]s, completing the link to Berlin and Paris. Speedier than the post train, pigeons gave Reuter faster access to financial news from the Paris stock exchange. Eventually the telegraph link was completed and the pigeons were no longer necessary.<ref>{{Cite book 
 |last=Wynter 
 |first=Andrew
 |year=1861 
 |title=Our social bees; or, Pictures of town & country life, and other papers 
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zACAAAAQAAJ&dq=reuter+telegraph+pigeons&pg=PA298 
 |publisher=R. Hardwicke 
 |location=United Kingdom 
 |access-date= 2023-08-14 
 |page=298 
}}
</ref>

A telegraph line was being laid between Britain and continental Europe, so Reuter moved to London, renting an office near the [[London Stock Exchange|Stock Exchange]].  In 1863, he privately erected a telegraph link to [[Crookhaven]], the farthest south-western point of Ireland. On nearing Crookhaven, ships from the U.S. threw canisters containing news into the sea. These were retrieved by Reuters and telegraphed directly to London, arriving long before the ships reached Cork.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Storey|first1=Graham| title=Reuters' Century|publisher=Max Parrish|access-date=2024-08-26|url=https://ia600208.us.archive.org/22/items/reuterscentury18011448mbp/reuterscentury18011448mbp.pdf|date=1951|page=33}}</ref>

On 17 March 1857, Reuter was naturalised as a British subject. On 7 September 1871, the [[Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]] granted him the noble title of {{Lang|de|[[Freiherr]]}} (baron).<ref name=LG /> In November 1891, [[Queen Victoria]] granted him and his male-line successors the right to use that German title (listed as Baron von Reuter) in Britain.<ref name=LG /><ref name= "reuters.com">{{Citation | url = https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50O1GV20090125?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews | title = Baroness Reuter, last link to news dynasty, dies | work = Reuters| date = 25 January 2009}}.</ref>

In 1872, [[Nasir al-Din Shah]], the Shah of [[Qajar dynasty|Iran]], signed a surprisingly lopsided [[Reuter concession|concession agreement with Reuter]]. [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|George Curzon]] wrote that:
<blockquote>
[t]he concession was dated 25 July 1872. When published to the world, it was found to contain the most complete and extraordinary surrender of the entire industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands that has probably ever been dreamed of, much less accomplished, in history. Exclusive of the clauses referring to railroads and tramways, which conferred an absolute monopoly of both those undertakings upon Baron de Reuter for the space of seventy years, the concession also handed over to him the exclusive working for the same period of all Persian mines, except those of gold, silver, and precious stones; the monopoly of the government forests, all uncultivated land being embraced under that designation; the exclusive construction of canals, [[Qanat|kanats]], and irrigation works of every description; the first refusal of a national bank, and of all future enterprises connected with the introduction of roads, telegraphs, mills, factories, workshops, and public works of every description; and a farm of the entire customs of the empire for a period of twenty-five years from 1 March 1874, upon payment to the Shah of a stipulated sum for the first five years, and of an additional sixty per cent of the net revenue for the remaining twenty. With respect to the other profits, twenty per cent of those accruing from railways, and fifteen per cent of those derived from all other sources, were reserved for the Persian Government.<ref>''Persia and the Persian question'', Vol. I, London, Frank Cass and Co., 1966, p. 480.</ref>
</blockquote>

The Reuter concession was immediately denounced by all ranks of businessmen, clergy, and nationalists of Persia, and it was quickly forced into cancellation.<ref>Lambton, Ann. ''Qajar Persia''. University of Texas Press, 1987, p. 223.</ref>