Editing Heinrich Schliemann (section)

==Career==
[[File:Шлиман в 38 лет.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Schliemann as a young man]]

On 1 March 1844, 22-year-old Schliemann took a position with B. H. Schröder & Co., an import/export firm. In 1846, the firm sent him as a [[General Agent]] to [[St. Petersburg]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

In time, Schliemann represented a number of companies. He learned Russian and Greek, employing a system that he used his entire life to learn languages; Schliemann claimed that it took him six weeks to learn a language<ref name="payne" />{{rp|30}} and wrote his diary in the language of whatever country he happened to be in. By the end of his life, he could converse in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Polish, Greek, Latin, and Arabic, besides his native German.<ref name=cw/>{{rp|28–30}}

Schliemann's ability with languages was an important part of his career as a businessman in the importing trade. In 1850, he learned of the death of his brother, Ludwig, who had become wealthy as a speculator in the California gold fields.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Constable |first1=Giles |last2=Rohrbough |first2=Malcolm J. |date=2015 |title=THE ROTHSCHILDS AND THE GOLD RUSH: Benjamin Davidson and Heinrich Schliemann in California, 1851-52 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44650947 |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |volume=105 |issue=4 |pages=i–115 |jstor=44650947 |issn=0065-9746}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Heinrich Schliemann; William M Calder; David A Traill |title=Myth, scandal, and history : the Heinrich Schliemann controversy and a first edition of the Mycenaean diary |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1986 |isbn=0814317952 |location=Detroit}}</ref>

Schliemann went to California in early 1851 and started a bank in [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] buying and reselling over a million dollars' worth of gold dust in just six months. When the local Rothschild agent complained about short-weight consignments, he left California, pretending it was because of illness.<ref name=Allen/> While he was there, California became the 31st state in September 1850, and Schliemann acquired [[United States citizenship]]. Schliemann propounded this story in his autobiography of 1881, though he clearly was in St Petersburg that day, and "in actual fact, ...obtained his American citizenship only in 1869."<ref>Christo Thanos and Wout Arentzen,''Schliemann and The California Gold Rush,''Leiden, Sidestone Press, 2014, {{ISBN|978-90-8890-255-0}}, pp. 46–47</ref>

According to his memoirs, before arriving in California he dined in [[Washington, D.C.]], with President [[Millard Fillmore]] and his family,<ref>Leo Deuel, ''Memoirs of Heinrich Schliemann: A Documentary Portrait Drawn from his Autobiographical Writings, Letters, and Excavation Reports'', New York: Harper, 1977, {{ISBN|0-06-011106-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0DNoAAAAMAAJ&q=President p. 67]; he also mentions meeting President [[Andrew Johnson]], p. 126.</ref> but W. Calder III says that Schliemann didn't attend but simply read about a similar gathering in the papers.<ref>W. Calder III, "Schliemann on Schliemann: A Study in the Use of Sources," GRBS 13 (1972) 335-353.</ref>

Schliemann also published what he said was an eyewitness account of the [[San Francisco Fire of 1851]], which he said was in June although it took place in May. At the time he was in Sacramento and used the report of the fire in the ''[[Sacramento Daily Journal]]'' to write his report.<ref>Traill, David A. "Schliemann's Mendacity: Fire and Fever in California." The Classical Journal 74, no. 4 (1979): 348-55. Accessed 23 April 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/3297144.</ref>

On 7 April 1852, he sold his business and returned to Russia. There he attempted to live the life of a gentleman, which brought him into contact with Ekaterina Petrovna Lyschin (1826–1896), the niece of one of his wealthy friends, whom he married on 12 October 1852.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} Schliemann next made a good profit trading in [[indigo dye]].<ref name=Allen>{{cite book|last=Allen |first=Susan Heuck |title=Finding the walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlık |year=1999 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-20868-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rV8vyYn-qMgC&q=Schliemann+gold+dust&pg=PA112 |page=112}}</ref>

By 1858, Schliemann was 36 years old and wealthy enough to retire. In his memoirs, he claimed that he wished to dedicate himself to the pursuit of Troy.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}