Heinrich Escher-Zollikofer

Heinrich Escher was a Swiss merchant, speculator, and financier who operated in the colonial expansion zones of North America and Central America. Born into a prominent Zurich banking family, he accumulated significant wealth through colonial trade, plantation ownership, and involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. His fortune, partly derived from enslaved labor and slave trading, contributed to the economic foundation of the influential Escher vom Glas family, including his son Alfred Escher, who became a key figure in 19th-century Swiss politics and railway development.