Léopold Louis-Dreyfus, the 18-year-old son of a farmer from Sierentz, Alsace, enters the grain business by purchasing wheat from local Alsatian farmers and taking it eight miles away to Basel, Switzerland, an important commercial center on the Rhine River between Germany and France. Seven years later he left Basel for Berne and extends the scope of his activities, buying grain products in Hungary and Romania.

Along with improved transportation systems connecting wheat markets, transatlantic cable facilitates communication between suppliers and consumers. Louis Dreyfus establishes a network of offices in Germany and France.

Louis Dreyfus headquarters transferred to Zurich, and it becomes an international trading operation, buying grain in the Danube basin and in Russia to meet the increasing demand of industrialized cities in Western Europe.

After the Franco-Prussian War, the Treaty of Frankfort ceded French Alsace to Germany. Léopold chooses French nationality with his official residence in Marseilles. By 1875 he had established the company’s world headquarters in Paris.

The Banque Louis-Dreyfus is formed to facilitate the company’s financial operations in grain markets.

Liverpool Corn Trade Association authorizes futures trading.

Louis Dreyfus operates a small fleet of sail-and steam-driven general cargo vessels in the Azov and the Black Sea under Russian flags that supply Ukrainian grain to larger bulkers chartered by Louis Dreyfus.