Tomás Terry

Tomás Terry y Adán (24 February 1808, Caracas, Venezuela –5 July 1886, Paris, France) was a Cuban business magnate.

Of Irish paternal descent, Terry was born in Caracas to Spanish-born José Antonio Terry y Mendoza, who had settled in Venezuela from Cádiz, and wife Tomasa Adán y España. Following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the Terrys had fled their hometown of Cork for Catholic countries such as Spain, France and the states of the Italian peninsula. The Spanish branch, established in Cádiz and El Puerto de Santa María, became involved in trade with the Indies and Sherry production quite successfully, as in less than a decade from their arrival many of its members were knighted in the Order of Santiago and Guillermo Terry was granted the title of Marquis of la Cañada by King Philip V, on 8 September 1729.

Terry initially became involved in the slave trade in Cuba, making his first $10,000 by buying sick slaves, nursing them back to health, and then reselling them healthy for a large profit. He bought the Caracas sugar mill for $23,000, and upgraded it to be the first in Cuba to use electricity. He went on to make a fortune through involvement in all aspects of the economy, from the sugar trade and slave trade to banking and imports, becoming the dominant businessman in Cienfuegos and earning the nickname the "Cuban Croesus". His fortune grew to be among the largest in the world, with a net worth of about $725,000 in 1851, $3,090,00 in 1860, $7,890,000 in 1870, $13,760,000 in 1880, and over $25,000,000 at his death in 1886, which occurred in Paris, where he was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

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