{"product_id":"2026200016311-secondhand-samuel-terry-the-botany-bay-rothschild","title":"Samuel Terry: The Botany Bay Rothschild","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Worn\/faded, no tears\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the convict ships of early colonial Australia to the heights of financial and social power, the extraordinary life of Samuel Terry stands as one of the most remarkable rags-to-riches stories the fledgling nation ever produced. Transported to New South Wales in 1801 for stealing stockings, Terry arrived at Botany Bay with nothing but ambition and cunning, and through relentless enterprise in trade, moneylending, and land acquisition, he amassed a fortune so vast that contemporaries dubbed him the Botany Bay Rothschild — a man who, by his death in 1838, held mortgages over a staggering portion of the colony's property.\n\nGwyneth M. Dow's meticulously researched biography reconstructs Terry's world with scholarly precision and vivid narrative flair, illuminating the brutal mechanisms of convict society and the morally complex pathways through which men of low birth could ascend to extraordinary wealth in early colonial Australia. Dow argues compellingly that Terry was not merely an opportunist but a pivotal figure in the economic formation of New South Wales, whose story forces a reckoning with colonial capitalism, class, and the peculiar promise of the penal settlements. For readers fascinated by the raw, unvarnished origins of a nation, this account leaves one wondering just how many other forgotten figures shaped the foundations of Australian society from the shadows.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49336815976667,"sku":"2026200016311-SECONDHAND","price":30.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/19bce3e4-5aaa-45bb-a995-5620e5c60ff3.png?v=1789958686","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016311-secondhand-samuel-terry-the-botany-bay-rothschild","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}