Uprising, he accompanied the family on their trip to Vienna. He also made some successful financial investments, including in the stock market. He then served as an economic adviser for the Zamoyski and the Sapieha families, invested in their estates, and lent them money. Late life After Poland's partitions, in which Russia, Prussia, and Austria seized all of the Commonwealth's territory, Staszic was active in many scientific and scholarly initiatives. He studied the geology of the Carpathian Mountains. In 1800 he co-founded the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning; from 1802 he was one of its most active members. In 1804 he went to France, where he observed the changes wrought by Napoleon. On return to Poland in 1805, he spent some time in the Tatra Mountains, where he continued his geological studies and conducted ethnographic ones. He worked with Jan Chrystian Hoffmann on a geological map of Poland. In the Duchy of Warsaw he worked with the Ministry of Education (Izba Edukacyjna Księstwa Warszawskiego) and was involved in numerous educational reforms and initiatives. He also briefly worked with the Ministry of Treasury. From 1808 he was president of the Society of Friends of Learning (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, or TPN), forerunner to the Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk); he would be elected repeatedly as the society's president until his death. In 1808 he also became referendary to the State Council (Rada Stanu) of the Duchy; in 1810 he became a full member. In the council, he was active in regard to questions of education and the economy. As TPN president he was active in many initiatives which supported and popularized science in Poland. He oversaw the construction of a headquarters for the TPN, which came to be known as the "Staszic Palace". From 1814 he supported the Russian Empire, seen as a Pan-Slavist ally of Poland, and favored the idea of a great Slavic monarchy. After the fall of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1815, he became a member of the government of the newly created small state of Congress Poland (in personal union with Russia), initially in the new Ministry of Education and Religion, in 1816 serving as deputy minister. In 1815 he was decorated with the Order of Saint Stanislaus. In 1819 he endorsed a controversial censorship law, damaging his reputation. His 1815 Polish translation of Homer's Iliad met with a negative reception. In 1816–20 he