Marcus Samuel
Marcus Samuel (1853–1927) was a British businessman who founded the Shell Transport and Trading Company and served as Lord Mayor of London.
Shell Transport and Trading Company: A British oil-trading company founded by Marcus Samuel in 1897, later merged with Royal Dutch Petroleum. Samuel transformed his family’s seashell-importing business into an oil exporter under this company’s name.
Oil tanker: A ship designed to carry liquid petroleum or petroleum products in bulk. Samuel’s purpose-built tankers made long-distance oil transport safer and cheaper than carrying barrels.
Moses Samuel: A London merchant and father of Marcus Samuel who traded in Japanese goods and established the family business. His importing enterprise gave Marcus the commercial foundation he later expanded into oil.
Oil industry: The global system of exploring for, extracting, refining, transporting, and selling petroleum. Samuel’s company became one of the major international businesses in this expanding industry.
Samuel family: A British Jewish family whose trading businesses included the import of Japanese goods and the founding of Shell Transport and Trading Company. Samuel inherited commercial experience and a London importing business from his family.
Suez Canal: An artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. Negotiating passage through the canal let Shell’s tankers shorten routes between Europe and Asia.
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher: A British admiral who served as First Sea Lord and advocated major naval reforms. Fisher and Samuel worked together on securing oil supplies for the Royal Navy.
Petroleum in the Dutch East Indies: The extraction and trade of petroleum in the islands now forming Indonesia during Dutch colonial rule. Oil production there supplied the Asian trade routes that Shell and Royal Dutch sought to control.
Japanese art: Visual and material arts produced in Japan, including ceramics, prints, lacquerware, and decorative objects. His family’s importing trade in Japanese goods helped establish the business he later redirected toward oil.
Royal Dutch Petroleum Company: A Dutch oil company founded in 1890 that developed petroleum resources in the Dutch East Indies. Its Asian production and Samuel’s shipping network became complementary rivals before their 1907 combination.