Johann Heinrich Schröder (12 December 1784 – 28 June 1883) was a member of the Hanseatic Schröder family of Hamburg, who settled in London and founded Schroders, one of the United Kingdom's largest investment banks.
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Early life
Schröder was born on 12 December 1784 in Hamburg to the prominent merchant (and First Mayor of Hamburg) Christian Matthias Schröder and his wife, Luise Mutzenbecher, from the notable Mutzenbecher family. Schröder's family was Lutheran.
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 and about acting as an acceptor of bills of exchange from an early age.
He then went on to form his own firms: J. Henry Schröder & Co. in London in 1818 and J. H. Schröder & Co. in Hamburg in 1819. In 1829 John Henry was appointed Russian Vice-consul in Hamburg and this enabled him to establish expertise in exporting commodities to Russia. The London firm shipped indigo and sugar to St Petersburg while the Hamburg firm shipped coffee and sugar to St Petersburg.
In 1839 he established a third firm, J. H. Schröder & Co., in Liverpool, receiving consignments of cotton from the Southern States of America.