Richard and Elias Hasket Derby

A Classification of American Wealth
History and genealogy of the wealthy families of America - Sponsors

Part 1 : Colonial and Mercantile America	Part 2 : America in the Gilded Age
Part 3 : America in the Twentieth Century	Encyclopedia of American Wealth
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Part I-Chapter 3 : Shipping Merchants > Salem Merchants : « Previous 1 - 2 - 3 Next »

The Derbys - Salem shipping merchants

… Elias Hasket Derby (1739-1799) followed his father in his career and rose to become the foremost Salem shipping merchant and the richest American in his times. During the revolutionary war, the Derbys outfitted their ships as privateers and gained over 50'000 $ in this activity. But the real growth of Derbys fortune came after the end of the war, as Independence opened the world for American shipping merchants, while limiting many of their traditional business. Elias Hasket Derby's visionary expansion put Salem on the map of a premier international trading port and grew him a huge fortune. His ships opened trade with Russia (the "Light Horse" in 1784), Mauritius and China (the "Grand Trunk" in 1785) and other distant places in the East Indies and Europe …

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