Hans Niels Andersen (10 September 1852 – 30 December 1937) was a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...
magnate
The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...
, businessman, diplomat and founder of the
East Asiatic Company
The EAC Invest A/S, formerly known as the Santa Fe Group and East Asiatic Company ( da, italic=yes, Det Østasiatiske Kompagni or ''ØK'') is a multinational holding and investment company, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
History
The East Asiat ...
.
Early life
Born into a working-class family in
Nakskov
Nakskov is a town in south Denmark. It is situated in Lolland municipality in Region Sjælland on the western coast of the island of Lolland. The town has a population of 12,495 (1 January 2022). To the west is Nakskov Fjord, an inlet from the La ...
, he trained as a
shipbuilder before hiring on as a
ship's carpenter in 1872. He came to
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
for the first time in 1873 and advanced to
first mate and later
master of ''Thoon Kramom'', a ship owned by
Chulalongkorn
Chulalongkorn ( th, จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V. He was known to the Siamese of his time as ''Phra Phuttha Chao Luang'' (พร ...
, the king of
Siam
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...
. Subsequently, he entered the
freight business in East Asia and later Europe.
Business
In 1884 he started his own company in Bangkok, Andersen & Co., which encompassed import/export, shipping,
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
and
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
s.
Returning to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, he opened a branch office of his company and in 1897, together with , director of the
Danish Farmers' Bank
Danske Bank A/S is a Denmark, Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail cus ...
, founded the East Asiatic Company with an initial equity of 3.5 million
Danish kroner. Its original purpose was to facilitate trade between Denmark and the
Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
, but it continued to grow, diversifying into shipbuilding,
marine propulsion,
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
, etc., until it eventually became the largest company in Denmark.
In 1912, Andersen commissioned the Copenhagen shipbuilding company
Burmeister & Wain
Burmeister & Wain was a large established Danish shipyard and leading diesel engine producer headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded by two Danes and an Englishman, its earliest roots stretch back to 1846. Over its 150-year history, it g ...
to build the
MS Selandia
''Selandia'' (after the Latin name for the Danish island of Sjælland) was the name of three ships of the Danish East Asiatic Company, the best known of which, the first MS ''Selandia'' of 1912, was the most advanced ocean-going diesel motor ...
, the world's first oceangoing
motorship. The East Asiatic Company expanded further, opening branch offices all over the world, reaching 250 enterprises in over 50 countries.
Andersen remained in the position of executive director for four decades. At the time of his death, in 1937, the aggregate turnover of the company was exceeding 233 million kroner.
Diplomacy
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, in which Denmark remained neutral, he was entrusted by the
Danish Foreign Minister
The Minister for Foreign Affairs ( da, Udenrigsminister, fo, Uttanríkisráðharra, kl, Nunanut Allanut Ministeri) is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. The officeholder is in charge of Danish (Denmark proper,), "metropolita ...
,
Erik Scavenius
Erik Julius Christian Scavenius (; 13 July 1877 – 29 November 1962) was the Danish foreign minister from 1909 to 1910, 1913 to 1920 and 1940 to 1943, and prime minister from 1942 to 1943, during the occupation of Denmark until the Danish electe ...
, with missions to several countries with the purpose of finding an end to the conflict. Andersen, who was an intimate friend of the
Danish royal family, was well versed in dealing with royalty. He hoped to appeal the British king
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
Born duri ...
and the Russian czar
Nikolai II who, along with the Danish king
Christian X
Christian X ( da, Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 to his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, in the form of a personal union rather ...
, were all first cousins. He attempted unsuccessfully to initiate peace negotiations, but more successfully to secure Danish interests.
Andersen, who was sympathetic to the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, was most likely unaware that his diplomatic mission for peace was proposed to the Danish government by the German authorities, who were trying to probe ways to get Russia out of the war, so they could concentrate their efforts on the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
.
He was Siam's
Consul General in Denmark 1898–1932, became titular Councilor of State () in 1900, and was created
Knight of the Elephant
The Order of the Elephant ( da, Elefantordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry and is Denmark's highest-ranked honour. It has origins in the 15th century, but has officially existed since 1693, and since the establishment of constitutional ...
, the highest Danish
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
, in 1919.
Further reading
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andersen, Hans Niels
19th-century Danish businesspeople
20th-century Danish businesspeople
People from Nakskov
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Dannebrog
19th-century Danish people
20th-century Danish people
1852 births
1937 deaths
Danish businesspeople in shipping
Burials at Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen