Andries Pels was a rich Dutch banker and insurer from Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. He was the banker of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in the era of John Law

John Law (economist)

John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade...

. He was nephew of his namesake, poet Andries Pels, and was uncle to the colonial governor Paulus van der Veen

Paulus van der Veen

Paul van der Veen Doens was a Dutch colonial governor. From 1696 to 1706 he was governor of Suriname, succeeding Johan van Scharphuizen. For twenty-five years, until his death, he was a member of the board of the Society of Surinam.He was the son of Balthasar van der Veen and Susanna Pels...

. In 1742 his widow, Angenita Pels-Bouwens (1660–1749), was the richest woman in Amsterdam, living at the Golden Bend.

Pels formed the partnership Andries Pels & Soonen, dealing in luxury goods, insurance, and currency, in 1707 that lasted until 1774.