In 'The Way We Live Now' by Anthony Trollope, what is the name of the financier?

In Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now, the financier is Augustus Melmotte.

Melmotte is a wealthy, mysterious promoter whose arrival in London exposes the novel’s fascination with speculation, status, and financial deception. He establishes himself among the aristocracy through lavish entertaining and the appearance of immense wealth, despite rumors about his past and the doubtful foundations of his business empire.

His central scheme involves the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway, a proposed line linking Salt Lake City with Veracruz. Melmotte manipulates investors and share prices while using social prestige to make the enterprise appear respectable. Trollope uses him to satirize a society willing to overlook suspicious behavior when money and influence are involved.

The other names belong to different parts of the novel’s interconnected plot. Roger Carbury is a principled country gentleman, Paul Montague is an engineer caught in romantic and financial complications, and Sir Felix Carbury is a reckless young aristocrat. Melmotte’s daughter, Marie, becomes important to the Carbury family’s ambitions.