Haym Salomon

Haym Salomon was born in Lissa, Poland, around 1740 into a Sephardic Jewish family, and he spent his early adult years traveling extensively across Europe acquiring languages and commercial knowledge. He emigrated to New York around 1772, establishing himself as a merchant and broker. His sympathies lay firmly with the Patriot cause from the outset, and he joined the Sons of Liberty. Arrested by the British after they occupied New York in 1776, Salomon was held briefly before being released — possibly because his skills as a linguist and financier made him useful to the occupiers, though he reportedly used that access to help American and French prisoners escape.

Salomon relocated to Philadelphia in 1778 and quickly became the most important financial broker in the city, acting as the official broker to the French consul and to Robert Morris, the Superintendent of Finance. In an era when the Continental government had almost no reliable tax revenue and the Continental dollar was collapsing in value, Salomon's ability to negotiate foreign loans, sell bills of exchange, and maintain credit relationships with European banking houses was critical to keeping the war effort financed. He also lent personal funds, often without interest, to members of Congress who were stranded in Philadelphia without means of support — recipients reportedly included James Madison and James Monroe. His fees for brokerage services were famously below market rates, reflecting his conviction that his professional work was also an act of patriotism.

Salomon's health collapsed in the early 1780s, likely from tuberculosis contracted during his imprisonment, and he died in January 1785 at approximately forty-five years of age, leaving his family in significant debt. His contributions to revolutionary finance were recognized by his contemporaries but largely forgotten in subsequent generations, partly because his records were destroyed and partly because the role of a broker was less heroic in retrospect than the roles of generals and statesmen. Twentieth-century historians and the American Jewish community worked to recover his reputation, and statues in Chicago and elsewhere commemorate a man who gave his fortune and his health to a country that had offered him opportunity.