William Chalmers (merchant)

William Chalmers ( born November 13, 1748 in Gothenburg ( Sweden); † July 3, 1811 in Gothenburg ) was a Swedish merchant and director of the Swedish East India Company.

Chalmers in Gothenburg grew up as the son of the Scottish merchant, William Chalmers and his Swedish wife Inga Orre. He became director of the Swedish East India Company. As their representative and overseer he lived from 1783 to 1793 in Canton and Macao, where many European nations established trading posts. In 1795 he founded the first mechanical cotton- spinning mill in Lerum Sweden.

Chalmers became in 1774 a member of the Kungliga Vetenskaps -och Vitterhetssamhället i Göteborg. In 1811 he bequeathed certain part of his fortune establishing an " industrial school". It was 1829, the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.