Léopold Louis-Dreyfus
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Léopold Louis-Dreyfus (5 March 1833 – 9 April 1915) was a French businessman, diplomat, and investor who was best known as the founder of the
Louis Dreyfus Group Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC), also called the Louis-Dreyfus Group, is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture, food processing, international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, dev ...
, and
patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in c ...
of the Louis-Dreyfus family. The French government awarded him the title Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1912.


Biography

He was born Léopold Dreyfus to a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in Sierentz in Alsace in north-eastern France.Funding Universe: "Groupe Louis Dreyfus S.A. History"
Retrieved 16 August 2013

31 January 2012
His parents were Louis Lemlé Dreyfus (1798–1879), a farmer, and Jeannette Victoire (''née'' Hildenfinger; 1803–1837).


Business

As a youth, the younger Dreyfus made frequent trips to nearby Basel, Switzerland, delivering grain for sale from the family farm. In 1851, he began trading wheat from neighbouring farms. He founded a company under his father's name, as he was too young to use his own.Louis Dreyfus Commodities website: "Key eras in our history"
retrieved 16 August 2013
The younger Dreyfus later changed his surname to Louis-Dreyfus, but kept the company name without the hyphen. In 1858, after rapid growth, he moved the company to
Berne, Switzerland german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...
, where it expanded its operations throughout Europe by purchasing grain from the " breadbaskets" of Eastern Europe and transporting it to the hungry markets in Western Europe. In 1864, the company moved to Zurich, Switzerland and in 1872, after the Franco-Prussian War when France ceded Alsace to Germany, Louis Dreyfus chose French citizenship. He moved to the shipping port of
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
and by 1875 had moved his company's headquarters to Paris. The development of a transcontinental railroad in Europe combined with a more reliable shipping network and better access to market information – after the development of the telegraph and telephone – enabled the Louis Dreyfus Group to grow rapidly via arbitrage: the taking advantage of price differentials between locations. In 1883, the Louis Dreyfus Group was one of the first companies to engage in
futures trading In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...
at the Liverpool Corn Trade Association, allowing it to both buy and sell commodities simultaneously. By 1900, the Louis Dreyfus Group was the world's largest grain trader. In 1905, the Banque Louis-Dreyfus was founded to help finance the company's operations in grain markets. Thereafter, the company expanded internationally: in 1909, it opened an office in
Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior, Wisconsin, Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: Downtown Dul ...
and began exporting
durum Durum wheat (), also called pasta wheat or macaroni wheat (''Triticum durum'' or ''Triticum turgidum'' subsp. ''durum''), is a tetraploid species of wheat. It is the second most cultivated species of wheat after common wheat, although it repres ...
wheat; in 1911, it started trading cotton in
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
; and in 1913, it set up operations in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
. In 1915 Léopold Louis-Dreyfus died, turning over the family company to sons Louis and Charles.


Personal life

In 1860, Léopold Louis-Dreyfus married Émilie Lang (1840–1918), daughter of Isaac Lang and Rosalie (''née'' Aron) Lang. They had three sons:
Louis Louis-Dreyfus Louis Louis-Dreyfus (September 6, 1867 – November 10, 1940) was a member of the French parliament and co-director of the commodity distribution and trading company, Louis Dreyfus Group. Biography Louis-Dreyfus was born in Zurich to a Jewish fam ...
(1867–1940), Charles Louis-Dreyfus (1870–1929), and Robert Louis-Dreyfus (1877–1907). By the early 20th century, the Louis-Dreyfus family was described as one of the "five great fortunes of France".''Buried by the Times: The Holocaust And America's Most Important Newspaper'', Laurel Leff, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 81 Louis-Dreyfus also served as Consul-General for the
Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...
in Paris. He was awarded the title of Commander of the Legion of Honour (french: link=no, Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur) on 19 April 1912.


Legacy

Léopold Louis-Dreyfus died in 1915 and was succeeded at the
Louis Dreyfus Group Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC), also called the Louis-Dreyfus Group, is a French merchant firm that is involved in agriculture, food processing, international shipping, and finance. The company owns and manages hedge funds, ocean vessels, dev ...
by his sons Louis and Charles, who expanded the company in the Americas and in the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
(prior to the 1917 Revolution). In 2013, the Louis Dreyfus Group is considered to be one of the "big four" global food trading companies in the world competing with Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge Limited, and
Cargill Inc. Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Louis-Dreyfus, Pierre 1833 births 1915 deaths 19th-century French businesspeople 19th-century French Jews Alsatian Jews Commanders of the Legion of Honour French diplomats French investors Léopold Louis-Dreyfus