Theophilus Cazenove

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Theophilus Cazenove, or Theophile Cazenove (13 October 1740 - 6 March 1811), was a financier and one of the agents of the Holland Land Company.

[edit] Life and career

He was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the son of Théophile Cazenove and Marie de Raspin-Thoyras. In 1763, he married Margaretha Helena van Jever of an important business family, assisting his career in the Amsterdam business world. His early career was spent in commercial transactions in the Netherlands and France, where he met Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. Even though he was bankrupt by 1788 from activities involving American revolutionary war debt, he was retained by Pieter Stadnitski to travel to the United States to act as an investment agent for Stadnitski and other Dutch investors (Nicolaas and Jacob Van Staphorst, P. & C. Van Eeghen, and Ten Cate & Vollenhoven). He invested his clients money at first in development bonds issued by the new states and the federal government after Alexander Hamilton promised to fully pay the debt. Another venture included investing in large tracts of undeveloped land, which included the Holland Purchase. In order to implement these large and difficult purchases (sometimes complicated by the claims of Indians), he employed the advisory services of Hamilton and later Aaron Burr.

Cazenove lived well as a financier and was known for his generosity. His business dealings were not particularly successful and the investors barely made any profit, even losing money in the Pennsylvania land dealings which he organized with James Wilson. He was also hard pressed to account for funds that were under his control. In 1799, Cazenove returned to Europe even though he had become an American citizen. He eventually left the employment of the Dutch investors and sought a position under Talleyrand in France.

He died in Paris.