a merchant/trader and official of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC). Van Elseracq was the VOC opperhoofd starting 1 November 1641 and ending 29 October 1642. During this period, there were about 20 men at the VOC factory. He was in Edo from December 4, 1641 to March 12, 1642. He was also head of the VOC tr...

a merchant/trader and official of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC). Van Elseracq was the VOC opperhoofd starting 1 November 1641 and ending 29 October 1642. During this period, there were about 20 men at the VOC factory. He was in Edo from December 4, 1641 to March 12, 1642. He was also head of the VOC trading post from 8 November 1643 to 24 November 1644. He was in Edo for a second time in December 1643. The "trade pass" (Dutch: handelspas) issued in the name of Tokugawa Ieyasu. The text commands: "Dutch ships are allowed to travel to Japan, and they can disembark on any coast, without any reserve.

a New York landowner, businessman, militia officer, and politician. A graduate of Harvard University, at age 21, Van Rensselaer took control of Rensselaerswyck, his family's manor. He developed the land by encouraging tenants to settle it, and granting them perpetual leases at moderate rates, which enabled the tenants to use more of their capital to make the...

a New York landowner, businessman, militia officer, and politician. A graduate of Harvard University, at age 21, Van Rensselaer took control of Rensselaerswyck, his family's manor. He developed the land by encouraging tenants to settle it, and granting them perpetual leases at moderate rates, which enabled the tenants to use more of their capital to make their farms and businesses productive. Active in politics as a Federalist, Van Rensselaer served in the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate, and as Lieutenant Governor of New York. After the demise of the Federalist Party, Van Rensselaer was a John Quincy Adams supporter, and served in the United States House of Representatives for one partial term and three full ones.

a merchant with the Dutch East India Company and the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1709 to 1713. After his studies, he became a merchant with the Dutch East India Company and travelled on the ship De Vrijheyt to Batavia, where he arrived 1677. He was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1709 until his death in 1713. He was a...

a merchant with the Dutch East India Company and the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1709 to 1713. After his studies, he became a merchant with the Dutch East India Company and travelled on the ship De Vrijheyt to Batavia, where he arrived 1677. He was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1709 until his death in 1713. He was a keen explorer, who undertook several smaller and a few larger voyages in the Indies.

an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry. Nicknamed "The Commodore", he is known for owning the New York Central Railroad. His biographer T. J. Stiles...

an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and invested in the rapidly growing railroad industry. Nicknamed "The Commodore", he is known for owning the New York Central Railroad. His biographer T. J. Stiles says, "He vastly improved and expanded the nation's transportation infrastructure, contributing to a transformation of the very geography of the United States. He embraced new technologies and new forms of business organization, and used them to compete....He helped to create the corporate economy that would define the United States into the 21st century."

a German - Swiss watchmaker, inventor, entrepreneur, royal Bavarian real secret court chamber councilor, salt works superintendent and mine director. After his school days at the end of the 1750s, the young Johann Sebastian was taken to Zurich by his sovereign, Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden, to be guild master Hans Conrad Pfenninger, who later became bai...

a German - Swiss watchmaker, inventor, entrepreneur, royal Bavarian real secret court chamber councilor, salt works superintendent and mine director. After his school days at the end of the 1750s, the young Johann Sebastian was taken to Zurich by his sovereign, Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden, to be guild master Hans Conrad Pfenninger, who later became bailiff of Eglisau, sent to watchmaking apprenticeship. His journeyman years led von Clais to Paris at the behest of the margraves. From 1770 he was introduced to London society by the agent of Margrave Johann Rodolph de Valltravers.