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Astor was a German-American business magnate, merchant and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America.<br/><br/> He went to the United States following the American Revolutionary War and built a fur-trading empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast. In 1816, he joined the opium smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of Turkish opium, then shipped the contraband item to Canton (Guangzhou).<br/><br/> In the early 19th century, he diversified into New York City real estate and later became a famed patron of the arts.
Elias Hasket Derby (August 16, 1739 — September 8, 1799) was among the wealthiest and most celebrated of post-Revolutionary merchants in Salem, Massachusetts, and owner of the Grand Turk, the first New England vessel to trade directly with China.<br/><br/> Derby is often referred to as 'King Derby' or as America's first millionaire. However, it is improbable that Elias Hasket Derby was known as King Derby during his lifetime. Nathaniel Hawthorne bestowed the title on him in 'The Scarlet Letter' (p. 4). As for being America's first millionaire, Derby was but one of a number of highly successful Massachusetts merchants of the period.
Sir Ellice 'Victor' Sassoon, 3rd Baronet, GBE (20 December 1881 – 13 August 1961) was a businessman and hotelier from the Sassoon banking family. He succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of his father Edward Elias Sassoon in 1924. Married late in life, he had no issue and the Baronetcy became extinct on his death.<br/><br/> Sassoon lived in Shanghai as a wealthy bon vivant who worked tirelessly to protect Western interests in the Orient and helped European Jews survive in the Shanghai Ghetto. Sir Victor walked with the aid of two sticks as the result of injuries in World War I in which he served in the Royal Flying Corps. He founded the Cathay Hotel (now the Peace Hotel) but left under increasing Japanese pressure in 1941.<br/><br/> Victor Sassoon was an avid photographer and held extravagant parties at his hotel. He sold his business interests in India and Shanghai in 1948 and transferred the proceeds to the Bahamas. There in 1952 he set up a new enterprise, the E.D. Sassoon Banking Company.
Abiel Abbot Low (February 7, 1811 – January 7, 1893) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, trader and philanthropist who gained most of his fortune from the China trade, importing teas, porcelains, and silk, and building and operating a fleet of reputable clipper ships.<br/><br/> In 1833, Low sailed to Canton (now Guangzhou), China, and started working as a clerk for the mercantile house of Russell & Company, the largest American firm in China and also the leading American opium trading and smuggling enterprise into China, founded by Samuel Russell, and of which Low's uncle, William Henry Low, had been head for some years. In 1837, after four years of learning the intricacies of trading in China, Low became a partner in the firm.<br/><br/> In 1840, he launched his own business in a joint venture with Wu Bingjian, also known as Howqua, a mentor for young Americans in China, and a very important Hong merchant, head of the Canton Cohong and one of the richest men in China. The company, A. A. Low & Brother named for both him and his brother, Josiah Orne Low, rapidly became one of the leading China and Japan silks and teas trading company.<br/><br/> Having made his fortune in China working with Russell & Co, the largest US opium smuggling enterprise into China at the time of the Opium Wars, and shortly after the launch of his business, Low returned to New York. There, he set up his New York headquarters on Fletcher Street, in a building shared with his father's business. In 1849–1850, Low erected the A. A. Low building at 167–171 John Street, now part of the historic South Street Seaport historic area. The firm was situated at its Burling Slip building from 1850 to after the turn of the century.<br/><br/> Low launched his own fleet of clippers, among which were the Houqua, the first streamlined ship, named after his Chinese business partner who had died in 1843, and the Samuel Russell, named after the founder of the mercantile company in which Low had worked as a clerk. Two other of Low's clippers, the Contest and the Jacob Bell, were subsequently destroyed by Confederate privateers during the Civil War.<br/><br/> He is also known for his philanthropy activities. In 1858, he became president of the Brooklyn Female Academy, later the Packer Collegiate Institute, and remained on the Packer board until his death in 1893. He was known to give bonuses to teachers and anonymous scholarships to deserving students. He also contributed to the development of the Brooklyn Library, the City hospital and many other cultural, educational, social and religious enterprises.
Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967), an American magazine magnate, was called 'the most influential private citizen in the America of his day'. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans.<br/><br/><i>Time</i> summarized and interpreted the week's news; <i>Life</i> was a picture magazine of politics, culture, and society that dominated American visual perceptions in the era before television; <i>Fortune</i> explored in depth the economy and the world of business, introducing to executives avant-garde ideas such as Keynesianism; and <i>Sports Illustrated</i> which probed beneath the surface of the game to explore the motivations and strategies of the teams and key players.<br/><br/> Add in his radio projects and newsreels, and Luce created the first multimedia corporation. Luce was born in China to missionary parents. Luce envisaged that the United States would achieve world hegemony, and, in 1941, he declared the 20th century would be the 'American Century'.
John Murray Forbes (1813 – 1898) was born in Bordeaux, France. His parents were Ralph Bennett Forbes and wife Margaret Perkins, niece of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, founder of a Boston Brahmin family merchant dynasty involved in the China trade. The Forbes family settled in Milton, Massachusetts, where his father was an energetic but unsuccessful businessman who died when John was only six.<br/><br/> Forbes attended school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, then at Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1823-28. He was one of three brothers sent by their uncle to Canton (now Guangzhou), China, and achieved some financial success during a short time spent trading in Canton. However, unlike his brother Robert Bennet Forbes who devoted himself to the China trade, Forbes returned to Boston and became an early railroad investor and landowner.<br/><br/> Although Forbes' is best known as a railroad magnate, much of his fortune was based in the opium trade to China. It is said that his opium millions financed the career of author Ralph Waldo Emerson, who married Forbes's daughter, and bankrolled the establishment of the Bell Telephone Company, whose first president was William Hathaway Forbes, father of Ruth Forbes Paine.
John Murray Forbes (1813 – 1898) was born in Bordeaux, France. His parents were Ralph Bennett Forbes and wife Margaret Perkins, niece of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, founder of a Boston Brahmin family merchant dynasty involved in the China trade. The Forbes family settled in Milton, Massachusetts, where his father was an energetic but unsuccessful businessman who died when John was only six.<br/><br/> Forbes attended school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, then at Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1823-28. He was one of three brothers sent by their uncle to Canton (now Guangzhou), China, and achieved some financial success during a short time spent trading in Canton. However, unlike his brother Robert Bennet Forbes who devoted himself to the China trade, Forbes returned to Boston and became an early railroad investor and landowner.<br/><br/> Although Forbes' is best known as a railroad magnate, much of his fortune was based in the opium trade to China. It is said that his opium millions financed the career of author Ralph Waldo Emerson, who married Forbes's daughter, and bankrolled the establishment of the Bell Telephone Company, whose first president was William Hathaway Forbes, father of Ruth Forbes Paine.