Background
Schröder was born on 12 December 1784 in Hamburg to the prominent merchant and First Mayor of Hamburg Christian Matthias Schröder and Luise, from the notable Mutzenbecher family.
Schröder was born on 12 December 1784 in Hamburg to the prominent merchant and First Mayor of Hamburg Christian Matthias Schröder and Luise, from the notable Mutzenbecher family.
Having been admitted to his older brother"s firm, J. F. Schröder & Company, 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 & Company in London in 1818 and J. H. Schröder & Company 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 Street St. Petersburg while the Hamburg firm shipped coffee and sugar to Street St. Petersburg.
In 1839 he established a third firm, J. H. Schröder & Company, in Liverpool, receiving consignments of cotton from the Southern States of America. By the 1840s he was one of the 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 (Kalkhorst) 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 Prussian Freiherr with the title of Baron Johann Heinrich von Schröder.