If you ask a random person on the street who the first American millionaire was, they’ll probably guess John D. Rockefeller or maybe some Vanderbilt. It makes sense. Those names are basically synonymous with "old money." But here’s the thing: they’re wrong. By the time Rockefeller was even born, the title had already been claimed.
Then you have the history buffs who point to John Jacob Astor. He’s usually the "official" answer in textbooks because he was the first multi-millionaire. He died with a staggering $20 million in 1848, which was basically 1% of the entire U.S. GDP at the time. Imagine having 1% of the country's money today. It’s wild. But even Astor wasn't technically the first person to hit that seven-figure mark on American soil.
That honor belongs to a guy named Elias Hasket Derby.
He’s not exactly a household name, but in the late 1700s, everyone in Salem, Massachusetts, knew "King Derby." While the Founding Fathers were busy debating the Constitution, Derby was busy figuring out how to turn the high seas into a literal gold mine.
The Man Who Turned Pirates into Profits
Elias Hasket Derby didn’t start from zero—his dad was a successful merchant—but he was the one who took the family business and sent it into the stratosphere. Honestly, his timing was perfect. He was operating right during the American Revolution.
Now, when you think of the Revolution, you think of George Washington and muskets. You don't usually think of "Patriotic Capitalism." But that’s basically what Derby did. Since the American colonies didn’t have a real navy to fight the British, the government gave out "letters of marque." These were essentially legal permission slips to be a pirate.
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Derby took his cargo ships, slapped a bunch of cannons on them, and turned them into privateers.
It was a brilliant, if risky, hustle. His ships, like the famous Grand Turk, would hunt down British merchant vessels, capture them, and sell the cargo. Because he owned the ships, he got a massive cut of the spoils. By the time the war ended, Derby wasn't just a merchant anymore. He was a wealthy man with a fleet of fast, heavily armed ships and no more British to fight.
Trading With the "Forbidden" East
Once the war stopped, Derby had a problem. He had all these big, fast ships and nowhere to go. Most merchants were still trying to kiss up to Europe, but Derby looked the other way. He sent his ships to places no American had really bothered with yet: St. Petersburg, Manila, and most importantly, Canton (now Guangzhou), China.
In 1786, the Grand Turk became the first New England vessel to trade directly with China.
It’s hard to overstate how big of a deal this was. He was bringing back tea, silk, and porcelain—stuff people in America were dying to buy. He wasn't just trading; he was pioneering. He even used a "supercargo," which was basically a business manager who lived on the ship to handle the sales so the captain could focus on not hitting an iceberg.
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This global trade is what pushed him over the edge. When Derby died in 1799, his estate was valued at $1,063,799.
In 1799, a million dollars was an incomprehensible amount of money. To put that in perspective, the average laborer back then might earn a few hundred dollars a year. Derby’s wealth was so concentrated and so new that the probate court actually struggled to process the paperwork. He was the first American to cross that specific finish line.
Why Do We Always Hear About John Jacob Astor Instead?
If Derby was first, why does John Jacob Astor get all the credit? Kinda comes down to branding and the scale of the fortune.
Astor arrived in America with nothing but a few flutes (seriously, he sold musical instruments) and eventually built a fur-trading monopoly that would make modern tech CEOs look like amateurs. He also leaned into some... let's call them "questionable" side hustles, like smuggling opium into China.
By the time Astor died, he wasn't just a millionaire; he was a titan. He owned a huge chunk of Manhattan real estate. He was the first multi-millionaire, and his family stayed famous for generations—one of them even went down with the Titanic.
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Derby’s kids, on the other hand, did what many rich kids do: they spent it. His son built a massive mansion that was so expensive to maintain they ended up tearing it down just a few years later. The Derby name faded into the history of Salem, while the Astor name stayed on New York City hotels and libraries.
What We Can Learn From "King Derby"
Looking back at the first millionaire's life, there are some pretty clear takeaways that still apply to business today, even if we aren't legalizing piracy anymore.
- Pivot when the market changes: When the Revolution ended, Derby didn't keep trying to be a privateer. He immediately refitted his ships for the China trade.
- Risk is the price of entry: Going to China in the 1780s was basically like going to Mars today. You didn't know if the ship would come back, but if it did, you were set for life.
- Systems over luck: He didn't just hope his captains were good at math; he hired specialists (the supercargoes) to handle the money.
If you want to dig deeper into this era of "Patriotic Capitalism," the best place to start is the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. You can actually walk through the Derby House. It’s still standing. Seeing the physical space where the first American million-dollar fortune was managed makes the history feel a lot less like a textbook and a lot more like a real life that actually happened.
For those interested in the numbers, check out the U.S. Census Bureau’s historical wealth records or the National Archives. They have the original probate records that show exactly how that $1.06 million was spread across ships, real estate, and "specie" (hard cash). It’s a fascinating look at how the American dream was first built—on a foundation of salt water, silk, and a lot of guts.
Next Steps for Your Research:
- Visit the Peabody Essex Museum website to view digital archives of Elias Hasket Derby's ship logs.
- Compare the 1799 purchasing power of $1 million to today's currency using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) CPI Inflation Calculator to see the true scale of his wealth.