Louis De Geer

De Geer

De Geer is a family of Walloon origin which became notable in Sweden and the Netherlands...

(Liège

Liège

Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

, 17 November 1587 – Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, 19 June 1652) was a Walloon/Dutch merchant and industrialist. He is considered the father of Swedish industry for introducing Walloon blast furnace

Blast furnace

A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...

s in Sweden. He produced cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

s for the German protestant movement, but also for the Dutch admirals and the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

 and the Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...

.

Biography

De Geer was born in Liège/Luik in what today is considered Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. He was a brother-in-law of the famous Dutch author P.C. Hooft. In those days Liège was already famous for its iron ore. He set up as a coppersmith

Coppersmith

A coppersmith, also known as a redsmith, is a person who makes artifacts from copper. The term redsmith comes from the colour of copper....

 in Rouen

Rouen

Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

 and in 1611 eventually reached Dordrecht

Dordrecht

Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...

. Having earned a fortune as a banker and industrialist he moved to Amsterdam in 1615. Owing to his extensive travels he received a good education in business.

With the outbreak of the Thirty Years War the demand for weapons increased enormously. In 1618 De Geer delivered weapons to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Gustav II Adolf has been widely known in English by his Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and variously in historical writings also as Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolph the Great,...

, the Swedish king. Impressed by his business instincts the Swedish Crown

Swedish Crown

The so-called Swedish Crown, also known as the "Purchased Crown", was a part of the Polish Crown Jewels.- History :The crown was made for King Sigismund II Augustus...

 allowed him to lease estates near Finspång

Finspång

Finspång is a locality and the seat of Finspång Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 12,415 inhabitants in 2005.-Overview:Finspång is a traditional industrial town. The first industries were established in 1580 when a Royal factory for cannon and cannon balls was chartered. The industry...

, Östergötland

Östergötland

Östergötland, English exonym: East Gothland, is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland, and the Baltic Sea. In older English literature, one might also encounter the Latinized version, Ostrogothia...

 in eastern Sweden proper. Before long, De Geer had established a formidable workshop industry there. In 1623 he was active in a Swedish trading company.

The Swedish Crown continued to support him and De Geer received the monopoly on the copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 trade. De Geer, who adopted Sweden as his second mother country, immigrated to Sweden in 1627. He hoped to evade toll

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

 in de Sont. In 1634 he bought het Huis met de Hoofden on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. His wife died after the birth of their sixteenth child.

In 1640 De Geer travelled again to Sweden and was ennobled. In his new status he was able to buy 3/4 of the leased farmlands. His house in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 is today the Dutch embassy in Sweden.

Working for Axel Oxenstierna he went to Amsterdam to support the war against Denmark. In 1644, at the start of the Torstenson War against Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, he singlehandedly equipped an armada of ships to sail against Denmark. This fleet contained a complete marine, 32 ships with sailors, weaponry and officers. The Swedes were able to conquer Fehmarn

Fehmarn

Fehmarn is an island and - since 2003 - a town on this island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and ca. 18 kilometers south of the Danish island of Lolland...

 in Denmark, thanks to this aid. De Geer is also considered responsible for the Swedish Africa Company. When he founded this company a riot started in Amsterdam in 1649. His family also provided shelter to pacifist and humanist Comenius

Comenius

John Amos Comenius ; ; Latinized: Iohannes Amos Comenius) was a Czech teacher, educator, and writer. He served as the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, and became a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica...

in his home in Amsterdam. He died in 1662 after falling ill during another voyage to Sweden. He returned to Amsterdam and died there.