Benjamin Buck Greene

Benjamin Buck Greene (1808 – 3 April 1902) was a British banker, plater, and financier. He inherited a large fortune derived from the Atlantic slave trade and the sugar industry in the Caribbean, later becoming one of London's leading merchants and shipowners. He served as a director of the Bank of England for fifty years from 1850, also serving as deputy governor (1871-3) and governor (1873–5). Career Born the son of Benjamin Greene, of Bury St Edmunds, a slave owner and in the 1790s founder of what became the Greene King brewery, one of the largest brewing businesses in England. Greene was educated at King Edward VI School. In 1829 Greene went to Saint Kitts to look after his father's cotton and sugar plantations (acquired in 1823), which were worked by slaves and were highly profitable. The family also owned ships carrying sugar exports. Greene remained in St Kitts until 1837. The Greenes acquired several sugar plantations in the Caribbean, in St Kitts, Montserrat and Antigua, which they either owned or managed. They eventually run 18 estates. Benjamin senior established with his son Benjamin Greene & Son, West India merchants and shipowners, at 11 Mincing Lane. Through his wife's family connections, Greene formed a partnership with James and Henry Blyth, who controlled much of the external trade and sugar production of Mauritius, in 1846. Blyths and Greene, merchants and shipowners, became one of London's largest colonial merchants and shipowners. Importing sugar from Mauritius, the East and West Indies, India and France; exporting British manufactures to Mauritius. He converted Spooner's Estate on Saint Kitts to steam-powered milling in the 1870s.