Johann Jakob Bethmann (since 1776: ''von'' Bethmann, also known as ''Jean-Jacob de Bethmann''; 20 June 1717 – 2 September 1792) was a German merchant and shipowner.
Life
Johann Jakob was born in
Bergnassau, one of three sons of the administrator ''Simon Moritz Bethmann'' (1687–1725). After the premature death of their father, the brothers were raised by their maternal uncle ''Jakob Adami'' in Frankfurt am Main. While the brothers
Johann Philipp
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
and
Simon Moritz established the ''Gebrüder Bethmann'' bank based on their uncle's inheritance, Johann Jakob moved to Bordeaux in 1740, where he established ''Bethmann & Imbert'' (since 1779 ''Bethmann & fils'') as a trading enterprise and shipowning company.
In 1745 Bethmann married the Protestant ''Elisabeth Desclaux'' (1725–1785), a Bordeaux native. In 1749 he took Swiss citizenship and in 1758 he became a citizen of Frankfurt am Main. In 1768 he was appointed
imperial consul for Bordeaux, and in 1776 he was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
.
Bethmann proved an astute businessman and prospered quickly. Besides trading in goods and merchandise, he was not averse to an engagement in the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and had already secured a guaranty worth 300,000
livres
The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France.
The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...
from his brothers in Frankfurt for that purpose before the plan for a joint venture with the
Danish West India and Guinea Company
The Danish West India Company () or Danish West IndiaGuinea Company (') was a Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported on the comp ...
was aborted due to business uncertainty.
[Weber, p.198, citing Henninger.]
He left his daughter ''Katharina Elisabeth'' (1753–1813) in the care of his childless brother Simon Moritz in Frankfurt. There she married in 1769 the merchant ''Peter Heinrich Metzler'' (1744–1800), who thenceforth used the surname ''Bethmann-Metzler'' (subsequently ''von Bethmann-Metzler'' or ''de Bethmann-Metzler'') but remained in Frankfurt as a partner in the bank.
After Johann Jakob's death in
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, his Frankfurt grandchildren returned to the city.
Johann Jakob Bethmann was a friend of German author
Friedrich Melchior Grimm
Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm (26 September 172319 December 1807) was a German-born French-language journalist, art critic, diplomat and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers' ...
.
See also
*
Bethmann family
The Bethmann family (; ) has been remarkable for the high proportion of its male members who succeeded at mercantile or financial endeavors. This family trait began in medieval northern Germany and continued with the Bethmann bank, which Johann P ...
Notes
Bibliography
* Wolfgang Henninger: ''Johann Jakob von Bethmann 1717–1792. Kaufmann, Reeder und kaiserlicher Konsul in Bordeaux'', 2 volumes, Bochum 1993
* --: ''Grimms Freund aus Bordeaux. Johann Jakob von Bethmann (1717–1792)''; in: J. Mondot / C. L'Arriere (ed.), Lumières et commerce. L'example bordelais; (=Obras Generales 61); 2000
* Wilhelm Stricker: Bethmann, Johann Jakob. In: ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB). Vol. 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 574–576.
* Klaus Weber: ''Deutsche Kaufleute im Atlantikhandel, 1680–1830''. C.H.Beck, Munich 2004 ,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethmann, Johann Jakob
German emigrants to France
1717 births
1792 deaths
Johann Jakob
German merchants
18th-century German businesspeople