Sir Joseph Herne

Joseph Herne was born in London as the eighth son of a merchant tailor. Little is known about his early life. In 1671 he joined the English East India Company and in 1672 he married the daughter of Sir John Frederick, a successful and prominent merchant in London. As his son-in-law, Herne became a head of their joint firm in 1685.

In 1678 Herne was elected to the committee of the East India Company, and he held that post in several occasions until his death. However, his business started to grew after the revolution of 1688, and in the early 1690’s he expanded his business in various industrial and trading concern. In partnership with the goldsmith-banker Sir Stephen Evance and others, he used his international trading connections to handle the government's military remittances, first to Ireland (1690-91) and then to the Continent (1691-1694).

As a governor of the East India Company (1690-1692) Herne ardently defended the company’s monopoly. When in 1698 the new company won the trade concession in return for a £2m loan, he brought the “old” company into the subscription so that it could continue to operate.

In 1698, Herne also joined the so-called tobacco contractors who obtained the lucrative right from Peter the Great to export tobacco from England to Russia.

He died the following year worth near £200,000, or around £4.4bn in today's terms.