Financier of the American Revolution

No, I am not referrring to Robert Morris!

While Morris made substantial contributions to funding the Revolution and gets most of the credit (no pun!), especialy for funding the Yorktown campaign, Haym Salomon (1740-1785) provided critical financing and financial acumen in the critical later years of the war which has been largely overlooked by modern historians.

Salomon purchased large numbers of  government bills of exchange and lent his own money to the government.  From 1781 on, Salomon brokered bills of exchange (ranging into the billions in today’s money) for the American government and even loaned money without interest to members of the Continental Congress, including James Madison.

Chicagoans have appropriately recognized Salomon’s contributions with a downtown memorial depicting both Morris and Salomon providing aid to George Washington.

For more information on Haym Salomon’s activities in supporting the Revolution see:

Laurens R. Schwartz, Jews and the American Revolution: Haym Salomon and Others (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1987).