Nils Ludvig Arppe

Nils Ludvig Arppe (19 December 1804 — 9 December 1861) was a Finnish industrialist.

Arppe studied jurisprudence but returned to his home area, taking control of a sawmill together with his brother-in-law Johan Fabritius. Eventually he owned many sawmills and owned large forest areas. Due to economical regulation of forest resources, he started processing iron from local limonite resources.

In 1832, Arppe built the first steamship in Finland. He also made experiments with forestry and agricultural methods.

Arppe was married three times and had altogether eleven children.

Arppe's business led to the development of the Wärtsilä company.

Early life and studies Arppe's parents were lagman Nils Arppe and Margareta Sofia née Wegelius.

Arppe suggested obligating slash-and-burn farmers to plant larches on old fields, but his idea was not supported. Arppe bought rights of using hydro power from Jukajoki sawmill. The raw material, limonite, was collected in Ilomantsi, Kiihtelysvaara and Tohmajärvi.

He opened another ironworks in Ilajankoski, but the production volume remained small due to unfavourable connections.

Another, more prominent plant was built by Möhkönkoski rapids; it was operated by Rauch brothers since 1848. The ironworks was close to Arppe's lands and the owners had made mining claims in lakes which were inside Arppe's forests. Arppe raised court cases claiming for example that the iron mill is polluting meadows from which the local people get food for their animals. After the Rauch brothers got enough of Arppe's disturbance and left, Arppe redeemed the ironworks to himself in 1851. This happened before the Värtsilä plant was started.

In Arppe's ownership the Möhkö became the largest limonite processor of Finland. The main problem in both ironmills was the high phosphorus content in the mineral; this made the iron hard but fragile. In 1859, Arppe got licence to build a steam-powered puddling and rolling plant in Värtsilä; it was used for the production of both Värtsilä and Möhkö.

The ready ingots were transported to Värtsilä or through Pälkjärvi to shore of lake Ladoga. After the Saimaa Channel was taken into use in 1856, the products could be transported by water. The main market areas were Saint Petersburg and south side of Gulf of Finland. Crimean War increased the demand temporarily, but after that prices dropped. Although the Finnish iron ingots and bars were duty-free in the Russian market, the highly developed international iron producers could sell their products for a competitive price despite tariffs. Arppe's other supporting leg was his timber industry which enabled investments on ironmills.

Ingots were further processed into bars in Värtsilä. Arppe's company employed thousands of people; Möhkö works alone gave work to 2,000 men for limonite digging, coal burning, operating of barges and driving horses. Arppe's plants provided significant income to the local people. The plants attracted many workers from distant locations and the local food production could not cover the need. Arppe printed his own notes, called "dog tongues", which could be used as payment in company shop.

Läskelä sawmill In 1859, Arppe stepped back to forest industry by buying Läskelä hydropowered sawmill. As the sawmill was situated by river Jänisjoki which also flows through Värtsilä, the significance of Värtsilä grew as the main location of Arppe's company.

Private life Arppe was married to Jeannette Charlotta née Porthan in 1841, but she died already in 1843. In 1845, Arppe married her sister Matilds, who died ten years later. Arppe's third wife was Amalia Kristina née Seitz. He had altogether eleven children.

Arppe remained faithful to his home county and he had a reputation as a man on whose word one can count. While he was a hard industrialist, he had the ability to identify the capable people among uneducated peasants and put them to responsible positions; such were Taneli Rouvinen, Staffan Riikonen and Paul Hendunen, who worked as plant managers.

Arppe had far-reaching plans for developing his business, but they did not materialise before he fell seriously ill. Despite being partly paralysed, he wanted to be in place seeing when the last pieces of machinery of his rolling plant, warped along river Jänisjoki, arrived in Värtsilä. Arppe died in 1861, shortly before era of economical deregulation in Finland.

Arppe left as inheritance a significant amount of land; according to estimates, it totalled 120,000–130,000 hectares. His business was continued after and led to development of Wärtsilä company.