The world's most successful business was founded by a slave

When America was colonized, the British started sugar plantations in the Caribbean, where they forced enslaved West Africans to work.<br><br>One of these slaves, a woman named Elizabeth "Betty" Wallis, was put to work by a plantation owner named Thomas Lascelles.<br><br>Lascelles was a merchant who had made a career out of financing sugar plantations, and was so good at it that he was able to amass an enormous amount of wealth. By the time he died, in 1748, he had built the world's most successful business in history. Adjusted for inflation, the company he built would go on to be worth over $100 billion at its peak.<br><br>Here's how Lascelles did it:<br><br>Sugar was a highly profitable commodity in 17th-century Britain. It was a novelty item that the British upper class loved to eat, but it was expensive to import from places like the Caribbean. <br><br>In an attempt to profit off the growing demand for sugar, the British started sugar plantations in the Caribbean, where they forced enslaved West Africans to work. <br><br>The problem was that the sugar plantations were extremely expensive to set up, and the British couldn't afford to import sugar from the Caribbean until a reliable transportation route was established. The Caribbean was thousands of miles away from Britain, making shipping sugar across the Atlantic incredibly costly and time-consuming.<br><br>To solve this problem, the British started financing each other's sugar plantations. They essentially created a sugar plantation hedge fund where they would lend each other money to buy plantations, and take a cut of the profit. This is how Lascelles made his money.<br><br>Lascelles would finance the purchase of a plantation, take ownership of it in case the plantation owner couldn't pay back the loan, and then sell the sugar that was produced on the plantation. By the time he died, in 1748, he had built the world's most successful business in history, which was valued at over $100 billion in today's dollars.<br><br>Over a century later, Lascelles's company would be sold and split into several different companies, one of which was called J.P. Morgan Chase.<br><br>So, to recap, a slave named Elizabeth "Betty" Wallis produced sugar that was sold by the world's most successful business in history, which was built and financed by a man named Thomas Lascelles, and would eventually become part of the bank J.P. Morgan Chase.<br><br>This story was brought to my attention in an article from the past. I think it's pretty interesting and wanted to share it here.