Marcus Goldman

Marcus Goldman
Marcus Goldman
Born December 9, 1821(1821-12-09)
Trappstadt, Germany
Died July 20, 1904(1904-07-20) (aged 82)
New York City
Nationality United States
Occupation Financier

Marcus Goldman (December 9, 1821 – July 20, 1904) was a German-born American businessman and entrepreneur. He was born in Trappstadt, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1848.[1] He was the founder of Goldman Sachs, which was one of the world's largest global investment banks and is now a bank holding company.

Contents

Biography

Goldman came from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, the son of Ella and Wolf Goldmann, a former schoolteacher and cattle dealer. He immigrated to the United States from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1848 during the first great wave of Jewish immigration to America, resulting from the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.

Upon arriving in America, he worked as a peddler with a horse-drawn cart and later as a shopkeeper in Philadelphia. There, Goldman met and married eighteen year old Bertha Goldman (no relation), who had also emigrated from Germany in 1848.

In 1869, with his wife and five children, Goldman relocated to New York City and hung out a shingle on Pine Street in lower Manhattan, with the legend Marcus Goldman & Co., setting himself up as a broker of IOUs.

From his earliest days of his business, Goldman was able to singlehandedly transact as much as $5 million worth of commercial paper a year. Successful though he was, Goldman's business was insignificant compared to that of the other Jewish-German bankers of the day. Concerns like J. & W. Seligman & Co., with working capital of $6 million in 1869, were already modern-day investment bankers immersed in underwriting and trading railroad bonds.

Goldman's youngest daughter, Louisa, married Samuel Sachs, the son of close friends and fellow Lower Franconia, Bavaria immigrants.[1] Louisa's older sister and Sam's older brother had already married.

In 1882, Marcus Goldman invited his son-in-law Samuel to join him in the business and changed the firm's name to M. Goldman and Sachs. Business boomed—by 1880 the new firm was turning over $30 million worth of paper a year—and the firm's capital was now $100,000, all of it the senior partner's.

For almost fifty years after its inception, all of Goldman Sachs's partners were members of intermarried families. In 1885, Goldman took his own son Henry and his son-in-law Ludwig Dreyfuss into the business as junior partners and the firm adopted its present name, Goldman Sachs & Co. In 1894, Henry Sachs entered the firm, and in 1896, the firm joined the New York Stock Exchange.

When Marcus Goldman retired, he left the firm in the hands of his son Henry Goldman and his son-in-law Samuel Sachs. In 1904, two of Sam Sachs's sons, Arthur and Paul, joined the firm straight out of Harvard University.

In the summer of 1904, Marcus Goldman died. From humble beginnings, the institution he left behind would soon become a full-service investment bank. With the advent of underwriting, coupled with the extensive lending, foreign exchange, and trading operations, the structure of Goldman Sachs was in place. Although much smaller and less sophisticated, it was already recognizable as the firm it would become.

See also

Business positions
Preceded by
n/a
Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs
1869–1894
Succeeded by
Samuel Sachs

References

Further reading

  • Supple, Barry E. (1957). "A Business Elite: German-Jewish Financiers in Nineteenth-Century New York". Business History Review (The Business History Review, Vol. 31, No. 2) 31 (2): 143–178. doi:10.2307/3111848. JSTOR 3111848. 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Marcus Goldman — (né le 9 décembre 1821 à Trappstadt mort le 20 juillet 1904) est un homme d affaires germano américain. Né en Allemagne, il émigre aux États Unis en 1848 et fonde Goldman Sachs en 1869[1 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Marcus Goldman — (* 9. Dezember 1821 in Trappstadt in Unterfranken; † 20. Juli 1904) war ein deutsch amerikanischer Geschäftsmann und Gründer der Investmentbank Goldman Sachs. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Goldman Sachs Group — Inc. Unternehmensform Inc. ISIN …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Goldman Sachs — Group Inc. Rechtsform Inc. ISIN US38141G1040 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Goldman — is the surname of several people:* Albert Goldman, American professor and author * Albert Goldman (politician), American Trotskyist and lawyer * Alvin Ira Goldman, philosopher * Charley Goldman, boxing trainer * Duff Goldman, American Food… …   Wikipedia

  • GOLDMAN — GOLDMAN, family of U.S. investment bankers descended from Bavarian born MARCUS GOLDMAN (1821–1904) and joseph sachs , both of whom arrived in the United States in 1848. Goldman was a peddler in Pennsylvania and a clothing merchant in Philadelphia …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Goldman — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Alvin Goldman (* 1938), US amerikanischer Philosoph Bo Goldman (* 1932), US amerikanischer Drehbuchautor David Eliot Goldman (1910–1998), US amerikanischer Biophysiker Edward Alphonso Goldman (1873–1946),… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Goldman Sachs — Logo de Goldman Sachs Création 1869 Forme juridique Société anonyme …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Goldman Sachs — The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Lema Our clients interests always come first Tipo Pública (NYSE …   Wikipedia Español

  • Goldman 360 — A business platform developed by Goldman Sachs that is widely used by investment managers to assist them with money management and maximizing trading performance. The Goldman 360 platform includes a research database that generates investment… …   Investment dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”