He applied to Smith M. Weed
and Brown and Wells, New York attorneys, to negotiate a sale of his
bonds to the United States government, transferring also his right to
collect the Dominican customs. The United States government declined,
whereupon Weed, Wells and Brown organized the famous San Domingo
Improvement Company under the laws of New Jersey, the claim of which
was later the prime factor in bringing about American intervention in
Santo Domingo. Subsequently two other companies, the San Domingo
Finance Company and the Company of the Central Dominican Railway, were
incorporated, also under the laws of New Jersey, as auxiliaries of the
Improvement Company, but they were all managed by the same persons.
The San Domingo Improvement Company took over Westendorp's holdings
and was placed in control of the "regie." A fourth bond issue, of
L2,035,000 was floated through the agency of the Improvement Company
in 1893 for the conversion of the outstanding government bonds. The
Improvement Company also completed the railroad from Puerto Plata to
Santiago, which was the only improvement it ever effected in the
Republic and this it did with Dominican money.
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