Sir Dudley North

The experience of being stolen as a child by a beggar woman who simply wanted his clothes did nothing to dampen the commercial acumen of Dudley North, a younger son of a London baronet. Sent to boarding school, North showed little interest in learning. Apprenticed to a London merchant, North was sent at the age of twenty to Smyrna where he took up the post of agent for his master's firm. North's talent for commerce meant that he was able to build up some capital of his own as well as his employer's trade. He fell out with his employer but received an offer to run an important business house in Constantinople, and rapidly became the leading merchant in the Turkey Company. At one stage, it seemed he might be appointed British ambassador to Constantinople, such was his influence locally.

Instead he returned to England in 1680, after nearly 20 years in the Near East and having realised a large fortune. He took a large house in the City where he became a sheriff. North's fortune was further augmented when he married the widow of a Gloucestershire landowner who was also the only child of a wealthy Bristol merchant. North supported Charles II and his brother, James II, but did not flee the country when William of Orange took the throne and James fled to France. Under the new regime, North confined himself to commerce on a grand scale. He was also something of an economist, and a few months before his death in 1691, he produced a tract on 'Currency', advocating free trade and anticipating many of the views of Adam Smith.

North's fortune at his death would have been around £150,000 or about £3.4bn at today's prices.