Moses Taylor (1806-1882) was a little-known but representative figure in the history of the mercantile and industrial development of the United States and Cuba in the nineteenth century. Taylor was a New York City merchant in the West Indies trade...
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Moses Taylor (1806-1882) was a little-known but representative figure in the history of the mercantile and industrial development of the United States and Cuba in the nineteenth century. Taylor was a New York City merchant in the West Indies trade (chiefly Cuba), a long-time president of City Bank of New York, an entrepreneur and manager in the railroad and mining industries, a life-long Tammany supporter, an ambivalent War Democrat with personal and business ties to the South, and an important member of August Belmont's clique of Democratic businessmen. Bulk of the papers reflects Taylor's business career over five decades and is composed of correspondence and records, 1834-1889, of the trading house of Moses Taylor and the reorganized trading and investments firm of Moses Taylor & Company; personal papers, 1837-1880; papers of Taylor's estate, 1881-1900; papers, 1852-1882, relating to the estate of Taylor's father, Jacob Bloom Taylor; letters and papers, 1860s and 1870s, of Taylor's son, Henry A.C. Taylor, and other members of his family; correspondence and papers, 1830-1893, of Taylor's business partners, Percy Pyne (who was also his lieutenant and son-in-law) and Lawrence Turnure, and his closest associates in trade and industry, Henry Augustus Coit, Charles Heckscher and Philo Shelton; correspondence and records, 1830-1899, of the many industrial companies and public utilities in which Taylor and/or his family and estate had a financial interest; letters and papers, 1863-1888, relating to the Ten Years War of 1868-1878 in Cuba, during which Taylor's firm acted as agents for the independence movement; and records, 1793-1906, of other merchants.
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