CaribSeek Books | S.E.L. Maduro | Roots of our Future by Linda M. Rupert

S.E.L. Maduro[52]

S.E.L. Maduro & Sons

Salomon Elias Levy (S.E.L.) Maduro was perhaps the prototype of a self made man, rising from unpretentious roots to become the founder of one of the island's largest shipping and trading firms. He was born in Curaçao in 1814; after his father died he grew up with his mother and siblings in a modest house in Scharloo, then a small district outside the city proper. In 1837 Salomon opened a small shop at 45 Herenstraat in Punda which sold a small assortment of basic goods: rum, wood, hay, dry goods, textiles, braces, cigars, straw hats, vermicelli, flour, tobacco, skins, gin, wire, salt, and oil.

At the time the island's trade sector was in a serious slump and many local merchants,

including Salomon, purchased their goods, even Dutch products, from the free port of Danish St. Thomas. S.E.L. Maduro's store began with five consignments from St. Thomas worth a total of NAFl. 5,182.95. Sales were done in cash and credit. He made several sales trips to regional ports, including Coro, Paraguaná and New Orleans, and soon began exporting cigars to St. Thomas. Soon he added two schooners to New York, then two more, to purchase more goods for his thriving small business.

In addition to being a successful merchant he was also district master of Pietermaai, where he lived, from 1839 to 1845. Salomon was a leader of the group that won the coveted contract to demolish the city walls encircling Punda in the 1860s, and received the land to build wharves and warehouses. He built an impressive family house in Scharloo, which was then becoming a fashionable city neighborhood. Later, he introduced the first horse drawn carriage to the island.

S.E.L. Maduro & Sons officially opened in January 1874, with the participation of his two oldest sons. When Salomon died in 1883 his sons took over the business, greatly expanding it over the next years and successfully adapting the business to the new economic realities of the turn of the century. By the early twentieth century S.E.L. Maduro & Sons was the island's largest employer and had several offices abroad to supervise their highly lucrative import/export business, including Caracas, New York and Havana (which closed 1960). In 1929 the firm also entered the travel industry, becoming agents to PanAm World Airways and to KLM in 1934. Then they began importing beverages and building materials. Today, S.E.L. Maduro & Sons are agents to over 600 international shipping companies.

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