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Creator
Flint, Charles R. (Charles Ranlett), 1850-1934
Call number
MssCol 1032
Physical description
2.9 linear feet (7 boxes)
Language
Materials in English
Preferred Citation

Charles R. Flint papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Charles Ranlett Flint (1850-1934) was a financial capitalist, merchant and industrial consolidator. He entered the shipping business and worked for commission merchants in New York City. Popularly known as the "Father of Trusts", he was responsible for many industrial consolidations and mergers. Collection consists of correspondence, agreements, memoranda, minutes, commercial codes, financial statements, securities accounts, and patent and shipping papers which reflect Flint's multifarious and far-flung business activities in America, South America, Russia, and China. Included are papers relating to industrial mergers; rubber goods manufacturing on Long Island (N.Y.); the financing of the United States Rubber Company; the purchase and re-organization of the New York Times Company; the paving of the streets of Manaus, Brazil; a new submarine engine; proposals for railways between Guayaquil and Quito in Ecuador and between Alaska and Siberia; the supplying of munitions and cartridge belts to the Russian army; and the provision of loans to Russia and to China for railway development and to the Sultan of Turkey for the purchase of naval vessels. Also, correspondence of Flint as chairman of the American Committee for the Encouragement of Democratic Government in Russia. Personal miscellaneous papers include his receipts while travelling abroad, personal press clippings, photographs, and printed matter.

Biographical/historical information

Charles Ranlett Flint (1850-1934), financial capitalist, merchant and industrial consolidator was born in Thomaston, Maine, the son of Benjamin Chapman, a shipbuilder and operator, and Sarah Tobey Flint. His father, after being adopted by a maternal uncle, was allowed by an act of the state legislature, to change his name to Flint. The Flint family eventually moved to New York where his father had charge of the mercantile firm of Chapman & Flint which had been founded (c 1837) in Maine. After his graduation (1858) from Brooklyn Polytechnic, Charles Ranlett Flint also entered the shipping business. During the 1870s he was a partner in the firm of Gilchrist, Flint & Company, and afterwards, in W. R. Grace & Company, commission merchants for the South American trade.

In 1885 he joined the firm of Flint & Co., commission merchants, where he was to remain active for some two decades. The firm appears to have been an offshoot of Chapman & Flint, which had gradually evolved from ship-building and operation in Maine, to merchant banking and general merchandise trade in New York. During this period, and indeed earlier, Flint or his firm became involved in numerous commercial and financial ventures at home and abroad including schemes to supply foreign governments with armaments, munitions, and naval vessels. Included among the foreign ventures were the importation of crude rubber from Brazil, the fitting out in 1893 of a group of war vessels for the Brazilian government, the delivery in 1895 of a Chilean ship to Japan for its war against China, and the supplying of munitions to the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1894 Flint & Co. assigned its foreign trade dealings to Flint, Eddy & Co., and in 1899, its merchant fleet, to Flint, Dearborn & Co.

Popularly known as the "Father of Trusts" Flint was responsible for some twenty-one industrial consolidations or mergers including the American Chicle Co., American Woolen Co., Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., Sen-Sen Chicle Co., United States Bobbin and Shuttle Co., and the United States Rubber Co. His attempt to merge the electric light and power interests when he became president (1880) of the United States Electric Company, however, proved a failure. His economic philosophy was based upon his conviction that trade follows price, and not the flag. He argued that if American industry were to compete effectively abroad against cheap foreign labor, it would have to constantly reduce its costs of production by investing in new technology, and that this could best be achieved through industrial consolidation.

During the course of his business life Flint developed numerous relationships with diplomats and politicians. He served at various times as consul at New York for Chile, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. He advised the government on trade policy and was appointed a delegate to the International American Conference (1889-90) held in Washington where he proposed the creation of an international bank for the promotion of foreign trade. During the Russian Revolution of 1917 he was chairman of the American Committee for the Encouragement of Democratic Government in Russia.

Highly cultured and sophisticated with a pronounced literary bent, and despite a redoubtable talent for negotiation, Flint, in his personal life, was known for his gentleness of manner. Although his income was large he apparently never accumulated a large fortune. He was an avid sportsman, devoted to hunting, fishing and yachting.

Flint retired from business affairs in 1931. His wife, Emma Kate Simmons whom he married in 1883, died in 1926. The following year he married Charlotte Reeves of Washington, D. C. who survived him. No children issued from either marriage.

Scope and arrangement

The bulk of the papers (1872-1930) which are contained in seven boxes (2.9 lin. ft.) consist of business correspondence and collateral business papers. There are also a few personal miscellaneous papers.

The business correspondence and business papers are arranged chronologically and by subject. The papers include correspondence, agreements, memoranda, minutes, and commercial codes, miscellaneous financial statements of commercial and industrial firms, securities accounts, patent and shipping papers. The papers reflect Flint's multifarious and far-flung business ventures, transactions, associations and interests in America, Russia, South America and in China. Included are papers relating to international trade in general merchandise, industrial mergers, the purchase and re-organization of the New York Times Co., rubber-goods manufacturing on Long Island, the paving of the streets of Manaos, Brazil, and a proposed Guayaquil and Quito Railway. Included are papers relative to the provision of loans to the Chinese government for railway development, and to the Sultan of Turkey for the purchase of Chilean and Argentine war vessels. A large group of papers relate to the arrangement of a loan to the Russian government, the supplying of munitions and cartridge belts to the Russian army, and to a proposed Alaskan-Siberian Railway. Included also are original copies of cables in commercial code (with translations) from (and to) Hart O. Berg, Flint's business associate at St. Petersburg and at Berlin. Some of the correspondence with Berg relates also to a newly designed engine for submarine boats. There are also copies of cables between Flint and William M. Ivins at London relative to the financing of the United States Rubber Co. There is also correspondence (1917) of Flint as chairman of the American Committee for the Encouragement of Democratic Government in Russia relating to the organization of mass meetings and the passing of legislative resolutions in support of the Russian Revolution.

Included is a copy of a lengthy typewritten report (1904) by Pope Yeatman entitled "Description of a Trip to China, August 1904 for the American Chinese Co". which surveys various properties containing deposits of coal, copper, gold, and timber. The report contains numerous manuscript sketches.

Other business firms represented in the papers include the American Ordnance Co., Autosales Gum and Chocolate Co., the Computer-Tabulating-Recording Co., the Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe Bending Co., and the United States Rubber Co. Included is a book of minutes (1886-91) of meetings of the board of directors and of the executive committee of the New York Commercial Company relating to the trade in rubber and Gutta percha in Africa and in the Amazon and to the manufacture of rubber goods on Long Island.

Individual correspondents include Newton D. Baker, Bernard M. Baruch, Rex Beach, August Belmont, Albert B. Boardman, Henry T. Bottinger, Nicholas Murray Butler, Andrew Carnegie, Frank R. Cordley, Josephus Daniels, Robert Hobart Davis, Chauncey M. Depew, George W. Fairchild, Samuel Gompers, Henry R. Lemly, Chester O. Lord, Mario de Mendonça, Salvador de Mendonça, Charles R. Miller, Frank Munsey, Walter H. Page, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Elihu Root, Jacob Schiff, Charles M. Schwab, Henry Rowan Semly, Henry Van Dyke, Herbert Ward, and T. H. Whitehead.

The personal miscellaneous papers include personal receipts of Flint and his wife while traveling in Europe, personal press clippings, and other miscellany. There is an undated group photograph including Flint and his wife taken on shipboard and unidentified photographs of places. There are also printed copies of addresses (1899-1901) by Flint and an imprint entitled The Trust: Its Book, by Charles R. Flint et al (N. Y. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910).

Partial List of Correspondents:

  • Baker, Newton D.March 27, 1917
  • Beach, RexJune 5, 1918
  • Baruch, Bernard M.[April 1902]
  • Belmont, AugustFebruary 3, 1893
  • Boardman, Albert B.December 8, 1914
  • Bottinger, Henry T.September 25, 1906
  • Butler, Nicholas MurrayMarch 30, 1917
  • Daniels, JosephusMarch 21, 1913
  • Davis, Robert HobartJanuary 14, 1909; August 31, 1918; n. y., August 12 at Nova Scotia
  • Depew, Chauncey M.November 12, 1903; April 7, 1908; June 24, 1908; October 8, 1913
  • Fairchild, George W.August 28, 1912; June 18, 1913; November 14, 1913; November 21, 1913; December 20, 1913
  • Gompers, SamuelApril 4, 1917; June 16, 1917; June 19, 1918 (R. Lee Guard)
  • Grace, Michael P.January 12, 1898
  • Grace, William A.January 19, 1898
  • Lord, Chester O.March 14, 1893; December 13, 1900
  • McAdoo, William GibbsMay 17, 1915
  • Mendonça, Mario deDecember 11, 1913; March 22, 1914; May 5, 1914 (from Flint); March 5, 1915; November 8, 1915
  • Mendonça, Salvador de (Brazilian Minister to the U. S.)March 2, 1898; November 21, 1905; December 2, 1905; August 21, 1911
  • Miller, Charles RansomAugust 16, 1893; August 21, 1893; September 8, 1893; April 19, 1894; June 28, 1917
  • Munsey, Frank A.May 18, 1901
  • Page, Walter HinesApril 5, 1913
  • Rockefeller, Jr., John D.April 2, 1902
  • Root, Elihu1917
  • Rosen, Roman Romanovich deFebruary 15, 1907; February 21, 1907; February 22, 1907; November 2, 1907
  • Rowe, Leo StantonJuly 22, 1902
  • Rowland, Edward B.August 31, 1906
  • Schiff, JacobJanuary 19, 1893
  • Schwab, Charles M.November 2, 1904; December 1, 1909; September 18, 1918 (Flint to Schwab)
  • Semley, Henry RowanFebruary 21, 1911; February 25, 1911; March 5, 1911
  • Van Dyke, HenryFebruary 26, 1898
  • Ward, HerbertNovember 29, 1916
.

The Charles R. Flint papers are arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1979; and Gifts & Exchange (unknown donor), 1990.

Processing information

John D. Stinson, November 1991

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Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328