Elias Hasket Derby

Elias Hasket Derby, painting by James Frothingham

Elias Hasket Derby (born August 16, 1739 in Salem , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † September 8, 1799 ibid) was the most famous of the merchants of the city of Salem and possibly the first millionaire in the United States of America .

Born on August 16, 1739 as the son of the businessman Richard Derby Sr. (1712–1783), he began to work as an accountant in his father's company. The Derby trading house owned 13 ships as early as 1760, which were active in trade with the West Indies and Europe. Both father and son were committed to the Washington cause in the War of Independence and supported - like almost all merchants and seafarers in New England - the Republicans by equipping pirate ships . Built for the Derbies in 1781, the Grand Turk began her career as a successful privateer with 17 prizes in 1781 and 1782.

Even before his father's death, he ran trading companies - alone or with his brothers - that added to the family's fortunes , surpassed only by that of the Cabot family in Beverly , Massachusetts . In 1783, with the death of his father, he took over the chairmanship of the Derby trading company.

The end of the War of Independence plunged maritime trade into a deep crisis, as the ships built in recent years were more used for piracy and the buyers of goods in the sphere of influence of Great Britain ceased to exist. Derby quickly took action from this situation by opening new trade routes to Northern and Eastern Europe, Asia and South America.

In November 1784 the company sent the Grand Turk, which was now used as a merchant ship again, under the command of Jonathan Ingersoll, to the Cape Colony , but only the failure of the trade expedition to the same destination and to Mauritius , which was carried out a year later , brought the breakthrough. On the recommendation of French traders in Mauritius, the Grand Turk headed for Canton and thus opened the East Asia business of the Salem trading houses.

In particular, the textile trade in India , organized by his son Hasket Elias Derby Jr., established the power of the trading house.

literature

• Richard H. McKey, Jr .: Elias Hasket Derby. Merchant of Salem, Massachusetts, 1739-1799 . Ph.D. Dissertation, Clark University, 1961
• John GB Hutchins: Trade and Manufactures. In: David T. Gilchrist (Ed.): The Growth of Seaport Cities, 1790-1825 . Pp. 83-103. University of Virginia Press, 1967.
• Robert E. Peabody: The Log of the Grand Turks . Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1926.
• Derby Family Papers, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA