Johann Heinrich Schröder - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Johann Heinrich Schröder (12 December 1784 - 28 June 1883) was the founder of Schroders

Schroders

Schroders plc is a British multinational asset management company with over 200 years of experience in the world's financial markets. The company employs 2,905 people worldwide who are operating from 32 offices in 25 different countries around Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East...

, one of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's largest investment banks.

Career

Having been admitted to his older brother's firm, J. F. Schröder & Co., at the age of 16, Johann Heinrich Schröder (John Henry Schröder) learnt about acting as principal in the shipping of commodities such as sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

and about acting as an acceptor

Acceptor (accounting)

In accounting, the acceptor, also known as the drawee, is the addressee of a bill of exchange. The acceptor is the person primarily responsible for the payment of the amount mentioned in the bill to the drawer of it on the date of its maturity....

of bills of exchange from an early age.

He then went on to form his own firms: J. Henry Schröder & Co.
Schroders
Schroders plc is a British multinational asset management company with over 200 years of experience in the world's financial markets. The company employs 2,905 people worldwide who are operating from 32 offices in 25 different countries around Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East...

in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

in 1818 and J. H. Schröder & Co. in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

in 1919. In 1829 John Henry was appointed Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Vice-consul in Hamburg

Hamburg

and this enabled him to establish expertise in exporting commodities to Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. The London firm shipped indigo

Indigo

Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...

and sugar

Sugar

to St Petersburg while the Hamburg firm shipped coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

and sugar

Sugar

to St Petersburg.

In 1839 he established a third firm, J. H. Schröder & Co., in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, receiving consignment

Consignment

Consignment the act of consigning, which is placing any material in the hand of another, but retaining ownership until the goods are sold or person is transferred. This may be done for shipping, transfer of prisoners, to auction, or for sale in a store Consignment the act of consigning, which is...

s of cotton from the Southern States of America.

By the 1840s he was one of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

's leading guarantors of bills of exchange relating to textile shipments.

He retired from the business in 1849 aged 65 and retired to his country estate at Gross Schwansee in Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...

(Kalkhorst

Kalkhorst

Kalkhorst is a municipality in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-References:...

) which he had bought in 1846. In retirement he established a home for the elderly known as the Schröder Stiftung and in 1868 he was made a Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n Freiherr

Freiherr

The German titles Freiherr and Freifrau and Freiin are titles of nobility, used preceding a person's given name or, after 1919, before the surname...

with the title of Baron Johann Heinrich von Schröder.

Family

John Henry married Henriette von Schwartz in 1819 and together they had three sons and six daughters.

Career

Family

Further reading