The Boston Associates
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The Boston Associates was one of the earliest investment capital companies in America. Established in 1813 by Nathan Appleton, Abbott Lawrence, and Amos Lawrence, the Boston Associates consisted of about 80 members, often related genetically or through marriage, and was centered in Boston, Massachusetts. By 1845, the group's 31 textile companies—located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine—produced one-fifth of all textiles in the United States. The textiles were a product of cotton, brought north from the southern cotton states by sea. With the capital earned through their mills, the Associates invested in railroads, such as the Boston and Lowell. These railroads helped transport the cotton from warehouses to factories. The Associates established banks—such as the Suffolk Bank—and invested in others. In time, the Associates controlled 40% of banking capital in Boston, 40% of all insurance capital in Massachusetts, and 30% of Massachusetts' railroads. Tens of thousands of New Englanders received employment from the Boston Associates, working in any one of the hundreds of their mills.
[edit] Further reading
- Robert Sobel The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition (Weybright & Talley 1974), chapter 1, Francis Cabot Lowell: The Patrician as Factory Master ISBN 0-679-40064-8
- Anne farrow; John Lang; Jennifer Frank; "Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery." Chapter 1. Ballantine Books, The Hartford Courant Company: Hartford, Connecticut. 2005.
