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The first person in America who could be called a millionaire might have been Jabez Bacon, a store owner and land speculator in Woodbury, Connecticut, circa 1750. This evaluation seems to be based on a net worth that included estimates of the value of land in the Bacon land company. Probably a better case for status as a cash millionaire can be made for Robert Morris of Philadelphia, a merchant and banker, best known as the "financier of the Revolution." Morris arranged for credit that paid for the Revolution, and contributed from his personal fortune to support the revolutionary cause. He was a signer of The Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, and served in Congress. However, he died a pauper, three million dollars in debt.
The three men usually named as the first millionaires are Stephen Girard, a French immigrant who settled in Philadelphia and founded a shipping and banking empire, Thomas Perkins, a Bostonian, and John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant who made millions in import-export and finance, all of them involved in the China Trade.
Thus, early in the 19th Century there were barely a handful of men who could be called millionaires in the United States.
By 1890, there were about 4000 millionaires in the United States, almost half of them living in the New York area.
Patent for Providence Plantations - March 14, 1643
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/ri03.htm
"And whereas divers well affected and industrious English Inhabitants, of the Towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport in the tract aforesaid, have adventured to make a nearer neighborhood and Society with the great Body of the Narragansets, which may in time by the blessing of God upon their Endeavours, lay a sure foundation of Happiness to all America. And have also purchased, and are purchasing of and amongst the said Natives, some other Places, which may be convenient both for Plantations, and also for building of Ships Supply of Pipe Staves and other Merchandize. And whereas the said English, have represented their Desire to the said Earl, and Commissioners, to have their hopeful beginnings approved and confirmed, by granting unto them a free Charter of Civil Incorporation and Government; that they may order and govern their Plantation in such a Manner as to maintain Justice and peace, both among themselves, and towards all Men with whom they shall have to do. In due Consideration of the said Premises, the said Robert Earl of Warwick, Governor in Chief, and Lord High Admiral of the said Plantations, and the greater Number of the said Commissioners, whose Names and Seals are here under-written and subjoined, out of a Desire to encour age the good Beginnings of the said Planters, Do, by the Authority of the aforesaid Ordinance of the Lords and Commons, give, grant' and confirm, to the aforesaid Inhabitants of the Towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport, a free and absolute Charter of Incorporation, to be known by the Name of the Incorporation of Providence Plantations, in the Narraganset-Bay, in New-England."
Constitution of Pennsylvania - September 28, 1776
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/pa08.htm
"SECT. 9. The members of the house of representatives shall be chosen annually by ballot, by the freemen of the commonwealth, on the second Tuesday in October forever, (except this present year,) and shall meet on the fourth Monday of the same month, and shall be stiled, The general assembly of the representatives of the freemen of Pennsylvania, and shall have power to choose their speaker... grant charters of incorporation; constitute towns, boroughs, cities, and counties; and shall have all other powers necessary for the legislature of a free state or commonwealth: But they shall have no power to add to, alter, abolish, or infringe any part of this constitution."
Early American Land Companies: Their Influence on Corporate Development
http://www.beardbooks.com/early_american_land_companies.html
THE CORPORATION & AMERICA
http://prorev.com/corpsandus.htm
"In the beginning, if you wanted to form a corporation you needed a state charter and had to prove it was in the public interest, convenience and necessity. During the entire colonial period only about a half-dozen business corporations were chartered; between the end of the Revolution and 1795 this rose to about a 150. Jefferson to the end opposed liberal grants of corporate charters and argued that states should be allowed to intervene in corporate matters or take back a charter if necessary."
The Development of Corporations and Corporate Law in America
http://david.sickmiller.com/cribs/ECON245/Public%20policy%20toward%20big%20businesses%20has%20been%20and%20continues%20to%20be%20a%20controversial%20subject.doc
"In colonial times, America used Britainís corporate law, which is significantly different than today. A corporation was considered an extension of the state, and it could only be created by the state. There was no such thing as a "private" corporation or a "public" corporation. The concept of limited liability had not been adopted, and many of the earliest corporations were granted monopoly privileges. In the first decades of the United States of America, business corporations expanded. America wanted to restore commerce, and this required infrastructure. Many corporations were chartered to build transportation facilities and establish bank and insurance facilities. Starting in the 1810s, manufacturing corporations flourished. New York was the first state to institute limited liability, and other states followed over the next two decades. In the U.S. Supreme Court's Dartmouth College decision, private corporations, which exist to benefit shareholders, were differentiated from public corporations, which exist only for public purposes. The Court also held that after granting a corporate charter, a legislature could no longer repeal or revise it."
History of Tea : USA
http://www.geocities.com/lgol27/HistoryTeaUSA.htm
"The first three American millionaires, Thomas Handasyd Perkins(1764-1854) of Boston, Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, and *John Jacob Astor
"The new American ships established sailing records that still stand for speed and distance. John Jacob Astor began his tea trading in 1800. He required a minimum profit on each venture of 50% and often made 100%. Stephen Girard of Philadelphia was known as the "gentle tea merchant". His critical loans to the young (and still weak) American government enabled the nation to re-arm for the War of 1812. The orphanage founded by him still perpetuates his good name. Thomas Perkins was from one of Boston's oldest sailing families. The Chinese trust in him as a gentleman of his word enabled him to conduct enormous transactions half way around the world without a single written contract. "
Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E27%257E604262%257E,00.html
"Self-made men were the best-known standard-bearers of wealth. A humble immigrant could become the richest man in America, because two did - French-born Stephen Girard, who came to Philadelphia as a merchant ship officer, and Astor, son of a poor German butcher.
The egalitarian-minded working classes of New York and Philadelphia, as we will see, quickly rallied against the Federalist merchants and financiers of the 1790s, with their predilection for British manners and contempt for the common man. Neither of these self-made businessmen had such vulnerabilities: Girard, besides being a supporter of the antiaristocratic French Revolution, was ugly; Astor was uncouth, with relatively little social pretense. Most of the Frenchman's clerks dressed better than he did, and Astor and his son handled and "beat" their own furs well into their second decade of business. Neither put on aristocratic airs or offended republican sensibilities."
New York
Timeline
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/series/resources/timeline.html
"1890 - Nearly half the millionaires in America -- 1,800 in all -- have flocked to the city and its suburbs, bringing with them a scale of extravagance startling even by the standards of New York. Along Fifth Avenue opulent mansions shoot up."
THE AGE OF INDUSTRY
AMERICA 1865-1920
PART III : ATTEMPTS AT REFORM
http://www.angelfire.com/home/sycamorehistory/IND3.htm
"Before the Civil War there had been few millionaires in America, by 1892 there were more than 4,000 of them. Some of the most prominent tycoons had emerged from humble origins and this was enough to create the belief that anyone could _emulate_ (follow) their rags to riches story. Andrew Carnegie had worked as a bobbin boy in a Pittsburgh cotton mill and John D. Rockefeller was the son of a traveling salesman. A few millionaires, in other words, were in fact what nearly all claimed to be: "self-made men.""
Town of Woodbury
Walking Tour of Woodbury
http://www.woodburyct.org/woodburyhistoricwalk.shtml
"Across the street is the colonial home of Jabez Bacon built circa 1763. The adjacent building served as his store and was built circa 1750. Unconfirmed reports put Jabez as the first millionaire in America."
Morris, Robert, 1734-1806, American merchant
http://www.bartleby.com/65/mo/Morris-Rb1.html
"American merchant, known as the "financier of the American Revolution," and signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Liverpool, England. Morris emigrated to America in 1747 and was soon apprenticed to the merchant Charles Willing in Philadelphia. He showed an unusual aptitude for business and by 1754 became a partner in the firm with the son, Thomas Willing, after the elder Willing?s death."
"Although Morris's vast mercantile interests profited greatly from his congressional activities, both he and his firm were acquitted by Congress of charges of fraud. After leaving Congress, Morris expanded his mercantile and investment operations independently of Willing and by 1781 was almost universally acknowledged as the most prominent merchant in America."
Robert Morris by Frank Gaylord Cook
The Atlantic monthly. / Volume 66, Issue 397 November 1890
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK2934-0066-92
Stephen Girard - Merchant, Mariner, Banker, Philanthropist, Humanitarian, Patriot
http://www.ushistory.org/girard/
"Stephen Girard came to America by way of Philadelphia in 1776 through circumstance rather than by purpose. He had been to New York on earlier voyages, but it was not until his arrival in Philadelphia that Girard made America his permanent home. He went on to be the wealthiest citizen and, in several ways, he contributed much to the early growth of the new nation he adopted. His influence was evident in shipping, construction, banking, and even in politics, later into coal mining and railroads. In a more benign display of control, Girard gained great civic regard with his attention to the human tragedies that took a toll in the early years of the Republic. His generosity was exhibited in many charitable works, the most notable of which thrives today."
Stephen Girard Collection
http://www.gophila.com/culturefiles/Museums/stephengirard/
"When he died in 1831, Stephen Girard left the bulk of his estate to set up Girard College, a school for orphaned boys that opened in 1848."
Stephen Girard
http://www.famousamericans.net/stephengirard/
"Mr. Girard was the financial mainstay of the government, he continued to make it large advances, down to the establishment, in 1816, of the second United States bank, of which he became a director, and whose policy he influenced greatly. In 1814, when the government could obtain only $20,000 instead of the $5,000,000 that it wished, he promptly furnished the entire amount, and in the same year, when the interest on the public debt could not be paid, he wrote to the secretary of the treasury, offering to wait for his money, or to receive it in treasury notes. At his death his property amounted to about $9,000,000, the bulk of which he bequeathed for charitable purposes."
Girard College and its Founder
The North American review. / Volume 100, Issue 206 January 1865
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0100-6
Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Memoir of Thomas Handasyd Perkins
The North American review. Volume 83, Issue 172 July 1856
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0083-13
"He was born in Boston in 1764. His father was a merchant, and his mother, who survived her husband for thirty-six years, continued his business with eminent skill, prudence, and success, at the same time discharging all a mother?s duties for her numerous family, and filling a large and honored place in connection with the charitable associations of her native town.
His husiness and that of the firm of J. & T. H. Perkins, formed after the St. Domingo insurrection in 1792, had thenceforward China and the northwest coast of America for their most important and lucrative directions; and the brothers eventually established a house at Canton. But their operations extended also to almost every quarter of the world then open to American commerce."
John Jacob Astor
Astor and the Capitalists of New-York
Continental monthly: devoted to literature and national policy. Volume 2, Issue 2 August 1862 http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABR1802-0002-48
"We may get the better idea of the Astor estate by a comparative view. Thus, a man worth one hundred thousand dollars is a rich man; a man worth five hundred thousand dollars is a very rich man; a millionaire is still more the ideal of wealth. Mr. Astor, then, is, if rightly estimated, equal to twenty-five millionaires, or two hundred and fifty rich men of the class first mentioned. In the seven hundred thousand inhabitants of New-York, there are not more than two hundred men worth one hundred thousand dollars; not more than twenty- five of the second; not more than ten of the last. Approaching the assessment-roll, we may estimate the Astor estate at one thirtieth of the entire city."
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Jabez Bacon of Connecticut is usually called the first American millionaire in the 18th Century.
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"I realize that..."
narrative
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