Theodore Hazeltine Price was an American cotton merchant and editor.
Background
He was born on February 9, 1861 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the second son and child of the five children of William Henry and Eliza Tabb (Dyer) Price. He was descended from Thomas Price, of "Coolwater, " Hanover County, Va. , an officer in the American Revolution.
Theodore's father was one of the members of the original board of managers of the New York Cotton Exchange and was president of the Southern Aid Society, formed at the close of the Civil War.
Education
He received some education in the public schools and under a tutor.
Career
At sixteen he went to work for the London Assurance Company. Deciding a little later that his chief interest was in his father's business, cotton, he found an office position with a large cotton concern in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1882 he and two others founded there the cotton brokerage firm of Eure, Farrar & Price; but in 1884 he withdrew and with Fergus Reid organized Price, Reid & Company.
Returning to New York in 1886 he formed another partnership, Hubbard, Price & Company. The partnership was finally dissolved and in March 1895 Price organized the firm of Price, McCormick & Company. On May 24, 1900, this firm, which for months past had been practically dominating the cotton market and forcing prices upward, was posted on the Cotton Exchange bulletin board as bankrupt, with liabilities of from $13, 000, 000 to $15, 000, 000. There was a panic on the exchange and heavy selling. All the secured and unsecured debts were met by the firm with the exception of a substantial balance for which Price held himself personally responsible, gradually paying it off. He went back into the cotton business and operated independently for several years.
He was also president from 1910 of the Price-Campbell Picker Corporation, which was backing a mechanical cotton-gathering machine. He changed to the bear side shortly thereafter and in 1904 regained dominance of the market, reputedly making a profit of $750, 000 by 1905.
In 1912 he founded the weekly review, Cotton and Finance, the name of which was changed in August 1913 to Commerce and Finance, and was its editor until shortly before his death. For a brief period during the First World War, he served as an actuary for the United States Railroad Administration.
He also compiled from time to time a "Cotton Atlas" and other handbooks which were regarded as invaluable by the cotton trade.
He died of pneumonia at his home in New York.
Achievements
Theodore Hazeltine Price founded Hubbard, Price & Company. This concern is said to have sponsored the so-called Tobacco Trust, one of the earlier of the great industrial combinations. He also organized the firm Price-Campbell Picker Corporation and was credited with launching the famous "bull" boom in cotton in 1903.
Price wrote Cotton and the Agricultural Cooperation in the South (1923) and contributed many popular articles on economic subjects to magazines.
He was an advocate of federal crop insurance to aid farmers.
Connections
He was married, May 26, 1900, to a second cousin, Harriet Eugenia, daughter of Gen. Alexander B. Dyer of the United States army. They had children: Harriet, Betty, Winston, and Theodore H. Price, Jr.
