James Mills (entrepreneur)

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James Mills about 1887

James Mills (born July 30, 1847 in Wellington , † January 23, 1936 in London ) was a well-known New Zealand businessman and politician.

Life

Private life

Mills was born in Wellington in 1847, the third son of the carpenter William Mills and his wife Catherine Miller. In 1847 his father joined Customs at Port Chalmers and worked as a landing waiter . Six years later, the father was appointed Customs Collector in Dunedin. The family is described as devout and wealthy.

James Mills, nicknamed Little Jimmy , attended Mrs. Johnston's School, JGS Grant's Dunedin Academy, and Alexander Livingstone's High School .

On November 7, 1871, he married in Dunedin Annabella, the daughter of William Langlands , an influential settler, and thereby improved his social status. With her he had three daughters. He divorced in December 1886 and married Sadie Gertrude Fosbery on March 20, 1888 in Dunedin, with whom he had two sons (the eldest of whom died as a child) and another daughter.

In 1906 he sold his properties in Dunedin ( Mount Lodge ) and in southern Canterbury ( Pentland Hills ). He traveled to London also to ensure a good education for his two youngest children. In 1907 he became a British citizen. After that, he lived on his fortune and did a lot of golf , skiing, travel and automobiles.

Businessman

He began by spending a year at Macandrew and Company , from 1862 he worked as an employee at the Harbor Steam Company of Johnny Jones . Mills worked his way up from a salesman in John's Waikouaiti store to a farm clerk in 1866 to manager of the Universal Bond department store and manager of the Harbor Steam Company in 1868. He bought some shares in this company. When Johnes died in 1968, Mills became the manager of most of his fortune. Johnes had ordered the sale of his steamers in his will. Mills succeeded in delaying this sale in the years 1869 to 1871 until he could replace the ships sold with ones that belonged to him or in which he at least had larger shares.

In 1874 Mills tried to set up a steamship shipping company for £ 100,000. In New Zealand, however, there were not enough financiers, so he traveled to Great Britain the following year and by chance met the shipbuilder Peter Denny from Dumbarton , Scotland , and was able to win his financial support for a project to take over shipping between Dunedin and Onehunga. Denny was supposed to deliver two modern steamships, the “Hawea” and the “Taupo”.

In the following years Denny delivered more modern steamships and Mill's Union Steam Ship Company was able to establish itself. In the 1880s Mills bought the shipping lines to Westport and Greymouth. Then he was able to dictate the prices and purchasing conditions for coal to the mines there. With the power over coal, which is indispensable as a ship fuel, Mills pushed further competitors out of the market.

The Union Steam Ship Company, founded by Mills, developed into a quasi-monopoly for ship connections to Australia and coastal shipping and operated a ferry connection between the North and South Islands. New Zealand's first major aviation company also went back to this company. In 1917 Mills sold the company to the British P&O Line .

In contrast to the small family businesses of his time, Mills' approach to corporate management is based on hierarchical management in which individuals could be replaced and on the restriction of free competition through monopoly formation. He made the Union Steam Ship Company in 1914 with 75 ships (which is more than the four largest Australian shipowners together had) to the largest shipping company in the southern hemisphere. His company was at times the largest private employer in the country.

Politician

Mills represented Waikouaiti on Otago Provincial Council for the last two months of 1870 and again from June 1973 to June 1875 .

Mills moved through the by-election in 1887 as an independent candidate for the seat of Port Chalmers in the 9th New Zealand Parliament. In the next regular elections in 1887 and 1890 he was re-elected, and in November 1893 he resigned from parliament.

He was considered a bad speaker and rarely spoke in front of parliament. In general, given the changing majority in the government, he felt better if business people weren't too involved in party politics. However, he was secretly a member of the Liberal and Labor Federation of New Zealand and had a great influence on Joseph Ward .

Memberships

  • from 1872 Dunedin Club (founding member).
  • Member of the Otago Harbor Board (port administration for Otago)
  • Board member of the Westport Coal Company
  • Board member of the National Insurance Company
  • Board member of the Trustees, Executors and Agency Company.

Honors

Mills was the first New Zealander to be knighted in 1907 and Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1909 .

The 2995 meter high Mount Mills in the Dominion Range in Antarctica is named after him.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James Oakley Wilson [first edition 1913]: New Zealand parliamentary record, 1840-1984 , 4th edition, VR Ward, Govt. Printer, Wellington 1985, p. 220, OCLC 154283103 (accessed April 13, 2012).
  2. ↑ Mount Mills ( English ) In: Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey . Retrieved June 10, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Mills, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand businessman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Wellington
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1936
Place of death London