Moses Taylor was New York City 's sugar magnate. Sugar was brought to the Americas by the Spaniards, and grown by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, especially in Cuba. The son of a Manhattan cabinet maker, Moses Taylor began as a clerk in a trade house specializing in trade with Latin America. In 1832, when he was 26, he went into business for himself as a commission merchant specializing in Cuban sugar. From his offices on South Street, he began amassing an enormous fortune. By 1837, he had become director of the City Bank of New York, which has since evolved into Citicorp.