The original Delaware Bay Company was founded in 1640, when leading merchants from the Colony of New Haven (which then included Milford, Guilford, Branford, Southold on Long Island, and Stamford in present-day Connecticut) sought to extend their markets further south. They organized The Delaware Bay Company that year to exploit 'whatever opportunities the Delaware Bay had to offer'.
On October 31, 1641 a New Haven town meeting approved all acts of The Delaware Bay Company and voted itself authority over the Delaware Bay region. New Haven merchants then embarked on a system of triangular trade: their ships would sail south down the coasts of the Atlantic ocean and Delaware Bay as far as the Virginia's Eastern Shore. Along the way, they would pick up tobacco and other agricultural products, as well as beaver pelts from the Delmarva Peninsula. They would then sail back north, selling their agricultural products to the Dutch in New Amsterdam (now New York City). They would then sail on to Boston, where they would trade their beaver pelts and other furs to the British in exchange for manufactured goods. Before too much longer, however, mercantile interests from the Massachusetts Bay Colony were successful in siphoning off most of New Haven's shipping, and The Delaware Bay Company faded into obscurity.
In 1981 -- some 370 years later -- The Delaware Bay Company was incorporated in Delaware by Gary E. Hindes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In 1986, The Delaware Bay Company, Inc. was granted a broker-dealer license from the National Association of Securities Dealers and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1988, T. K. Duggan joined the firm as President and under their joint leadership, the firm soon developed a reputation as one of the leading research and trading 'boutiques' on Wall Street.
In 1996, Mr. Hindes sold his interest in The Delaware Bay Company in order to concentrate on the private money management business and in 2005, the firm voluntarily exited the brokerage business. When The Delaware Bay Company, Inc. charter again became available in 2010, Mr. Hindes re-acquired it and converted it into a Limited Liability Company ("LLC").
