Robert Morris

• Born: January 31, 1734
• Birthplace: Liverpool, Merseyside, England
• Died: May 8, 1806
• Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

American merchant, financier, and statesman

Aided by a small inheritance, Morris became a highly successful merchant, and by 1775, he was one of the wealthiest Americans. Active in supporting the Revolutionary War, he served as the superintendent of finance for the national government from 1781 to 1784.

Sources of wealth: Trade; investments; real estate; government

Bequeathal of wealth: Dissipated

Early Life

Robert Morris, Jr., moved from his native England to Oxford, Maryland, in 1748, joining his father, a tobacco merchant. A year later, Morris was apprenticed to a leading Philadelphia merchant, Charles Willing. In 1750, Robert inherited an estate valued at about £2,500, but he had to pay some of this amount to other heirs. At a time when a skilled workman could earn perhaps £1 a day, this was a significant sum. Willing died in 1754 and his son Thomas Willing took control of his father’s firm, which became a partnership with Morris.

First Ventures

In the mid-1750’s, Morris made several voyages on behalf of the firm, and he sometimes was charged to sell both vessel and cargo. In 1756, he purchased a one-fourth interest in another firm that in May, 1757, was officially named Willing and Morris. This firm dealt primarily in imports and exports, necessarily supplemented by foreign exchange.

Mature Wealth

By 1775, Willing and Morris was a leading merchant firm in Philadelphia. The company owned ten ships. The American Revolution opened up a new opportunity to invest in privateering—legalized piracy directed against merchant ships of an enemy country. The firm also invested in land, including an ambitious southern plantation.

Morris was gradually drawn into opposition to the restrictive trade and tax measures of the British government. In 1775, he was elected to the Continental Congress. In 1776, he was chosen chairman of a secret committee to import military supplies, and much of that operation was conducted by the firm of Willing and Morris.

Morris reluctantly signed the Declaration of Independence, but once war broke out, he became a leader in organizing and helping to manage the financial and logistical operations of the Revolutionary War. His activities during the war primarily involved borrowing money at home and abroad to finance America’s rebellion against the British. In January, 1777, Morris obtained a desperation loan of $50,000, which enabled General George Washington to pay his troops and to defeat the British at Princeton. Morris was designated superintendent of finance, serving in this position from 1781 to 1784. He was a U.S. senator representing Pennsylvania from 1789 to 1795.

Morris combined his commercial operations with his public responsibilities. He formed numerous trading partnerships, better described as joint ventures. In 1778, he joined with Jonathan Hudson of Maryland, each furnishing half of the capital of £20,000 (Pennsylvania pounds). In the fall of 1778, Morris received commissions of £7,500 from purchases on behalf of the French in a joint venture with John Holker. By 1780, Morris was involved in nine major partnerships and numerous lesser ones, and these business ventures engaged in privateering, commodity transactions, shipping, lands, securities, and foreign exchange. In 1784, he invested $60,000 in the voyage of the Empress of China, and he provided $12,000 of capital for a new partnership in Baltimore.

Beginning in 1770, Morris developed a three-hundred-acre country estate, called The Hills, along the Schuylkill River, with a mansion and numerous other buildings, where cattle, sheep, and hogs were raised. His various home properties were worth at least $300,000 in 1795.

In his role as superintendent of finance, Morris often pledged his personal credit to make payments, even issuing the equivalent of personal banknotes, which reached a nominal total of about $1 million in June, 1783. His wartime service diverted him from mercantile activities, and his wealth was significantly reduced, though he continued to enjoy a high income. His efforts to recoup his fortune led him into land speculation. By the mid-1790’s, he owned millions of acres of land in seven states, as well as more than seven thousand building lots in the nascent District of Columbia. Morris had to borrow money to purchase these properties, and by 1797 he was unable to service his debts. His properties were foreclosed. On February 15, 1798, he was taken to debtors’ prison, where he stayed until August 26, 1801. His debts were tabulated at nearly $3 million.

Legacy

Robert Morris’s administrative skills and mercantile reputation and contacts enabled him to provide essential support for the American Revolution. He enjoyed a large income and lived on a grand scale for most of his adult life. His financial ideas anticipated many of the policies subsequently put in place by Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. secretary of the Treasury.

Bibliography

Oberholzer, Ellis Paxson. Robert Morris, Patriot and Financier. New York: Macmillan, 1903.

Sumner, William Graham. Robert Morris: The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution. Washington, D.C.: Beard Books, 2000.

Ver Steeg, Clarence L. Robert Morris, Revolutionary Financier. New York: Octagon Books, 1976.

Young, Eleanor May. Forgotten Patriot: Robert Morris. New York: Macmillan, 1950.