GODEFFROY & SONS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1858, 6 February 1880, Page 2

GODEFFROY & SONS.

The following is from the Vienna correspondent of the last number of the “ Economist" :

A great sensation was caused here during the week by the suspension of the Hamburg firm of Godeffroy aad Sons, who are amongst the largest merchants and shipowners of all Germany. They are descended from French Hugenots, and have occupied one of the foremost places in the commercial annals of Hamburg during six generations —two hundred years—and Hamburg merchants ■ are so noted far their extensive and dangerous speculations, that there is a general belief about them that a fortune never lasts more than three generations. Godeffroy’s ships were the most numerous in Germany, and great commerce was carried on by them in the Southern seas. The firm was generally considered to be a proof that there exist merchant princes even in our days. Their liabilities are valued at 10 million marks (£300,000 sterling), but the exact amount is not yet known. The firm’s assets exceed the liabilities by several million marks, but they are very difficult to turn into ready money, because the firm had undertaken the exploration of extensive mineral properties. Their embarrassments commenced as long ago as the crisis of 1873, and efforts had been made to meet them by the plan of putting the extensive business with the South Sea Islands into the hands of a newly founded commercial association. The stagnation of business, however, besides the low value of coal, iron, and their mining shares in general, damaged the firm so much as to frustrate all attempts at recovery.