page_title: Grill family
section_title: Anthoni Grill (IV)
hierarchical_section_title: Grill family / Anthoni Grill (IV)
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Beschrijving De Keizersgracht en het Huis met de Hoofden De Keizersgracht ter hoogte van 121 (geheel links, gedeeltelijk), gezien in zuidelijke richting naar de brug voor de Leliegracht. Op nummer 123 het Huis met de Hoofden. Historiserende voorstelling naar de situatie in de 17de eeuw. Documenttype tekening Vervaardiger Springer, Cornelis Collectie Collectie Atlas Dreesmann Geografische naam Keizersgracht Inventarissen http://archief.amsterdam/archief/10094 Afbeeldingsbestand 010094008288
context_page_description: The Grill family are noted for their contribution to the Swedish iron industry and for exports of iron and copper during the 18th century. Starting as silversmiths and experts on noble metals the Grills became engaged in a wide range of businesses. After 1700 the family began its rise to prominence. They owned ironworks, while operating wharfs, and importing material related to shipbuilding. The Grills benefited from mercantilist policy. With a positive balance on their account the Grills became engaged in banking, also in the Dutch Republic; around 1720 in the market for government liabilities and then mediating large credits and clearing international bills of exchange. The Grills had significant influence with the Swedish East India Company; three members became directors of the SOIC and the Grill firm traded as members of the SOIC and privately.
  All the noted Grills were in some way connected to the main Grill Trading House and to each other. Some Grills married a relative, others helped their nephews into business. In this way the Grill name was kept and passed on through the generations.
context_section_description: Anthoni Grill (19 April 1705 – 22 March 1783) was the son of Abraham (I) Grill and Helena Wittmack and twin brother to Claes (I). Around 1722, he moved to Amsterdam where he participated in his uncles' trading house, dealing in copper plates and iron and supplying the Dutch East India Company between 1722 and 1731 with silver.
  The Dutch had very little to offer in Asia but silver and gold. Therefore the VOC ships had to sail to Asia with silver bars and gold coins to pay for Asian goods. The bars were cast in private factories, run by assayers, from melted down coins, mainly from Spanish American "reales". Once in Asia these bars were melted down and minted again into coins such as rupees, that could be used in the East.
  In 1733 he married Alida Jacoba Hilken with whom he had eight children. In 1735 he cooperated with his brother Johannes (IV) to promote the trade with Sweden. Spanish pieces of eight were used to produce silver ingots that were shipped on the Rooswijk, which sank in 1740. In 1742 both brothers lived separately on Herengracht; they each owned a chaise and two horses. In 1747 they sold the silver melting business at the end of Spiegelgracht, and concentrated on banking and assurance on ships and goods for customers in Sweden. Around 1751, they moved into the "Huis met de Hoofden" which they rented from the descendants of Louis De Geer. He wrote twice a week to Stockholm. When Johannes died - with whom he shared many bills of exchange - Anthoni Grill became the only heir and his other siblings were bequeathed. 
  The trading house in Amsterdam wrote a bill for the amount for which it bought goods from a Swedish seller. The seller could then obtain money by selling the bill to someone who wanted to buy goods, in Amsterdam or elsewhere, and use the bill to pay for them. Importers and exporters both bought bills, in order to pay and in order to obtain money. Bills that were not cashed immediately earned interest. A bill that was transferred before it matured was sold at a discount. The interest due from the transfer date up to maturity was deducted from the bill’s nominal value. The higher the rate of interest, the larger the discount.
  During the Seven Years' War France gave a total of 11 million sd. in subsidies to Sweden. In 1759, Anthoni lodged Bengt Ferner, a Swedish astronomer and mathematician, who kept a diary about his travels in Holland. Accompanied by Jacob Grill, Ferner visited the mint in Utrecht and Harderwijk, run by inlaws. During the Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763, he was considerably involved in the bankruptcy of Leendert Pieter de Neufville, who failed to come to an agreement with his bankers. Their financial situation of the clearinghouse deteriorated, because of fluctuating exchange rates in the recent past. In the meantime the name of the bank changed to Antoni Grill & Soonen. In 1768, as in 1736, the Swedish mystic, inventor and mining specialist Emanuel Swedenborg visited Grill. In 1773, Anthoni became owner of the Garphyttan factories when the previous owner (Michael Grubb) failed to repay the money he had borrowed from him. To be able to manage the factories, his sons Jacob (1734-1799), Abraham (1735-1805) and Anthony Grill Jr (1743-1805) moved to Stockholm. Their sister Helena Catharina (1739-1804) owned a quarter in the profitable "La Jalousie" plantation along the Commewijne River and stayed in business. Both her father and Helena were buried in Amsterdam.
caption: Keizersgracht en het Huis met de Hoofden, where the brothers Grill lived in 1752
   by Cornelis Springer
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