Martha Washington and Abigail Adams were smart businesswomen. One can argue that Martha’s business sense was at least as good as our first president’s and that Abigail had a far better head for business than her husband, John.

Adams’ premier business skill was as a bond speculator, although she was also a small-scale importer, retailer, lender and real estate investor during her marriage to our second president, according to Woody Holton’s 2009 biography, “Abigail Adams.”

The voluminous correspondence between John and Abigail, along with her letters to an uncle who was her business mentor and others, creates a substantial historical record, which Holton used to profile a woman who was centuries ahead of her time.

By contrast, the historical record of Martha Washington is much thinner. At George’s direction, Martha destroyed all of their correspondence soon after his death.

Nonetheless, author Patricia Brady drew on other records and correspondence to create a portrait of a strong, smart woman in her 2005 book, “Martha Washington: An American Life.”

Unlike Abigail, whose business skills were in evidence throughout her life, the record of Martha’s business acumen is largely confined to the 17 months between the death of her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, in 1757 and her marriage to Washington in 1759.

Martha was 26 with two small children when Custis died, but was still able to successfully run one of the largest plantations in Virginia. She took over the correspondence with her husband’s agent in London and “continued Daniel’s practice of lending money at interest to cash-strapped planters,” collecting in person when necessary, Brady wrote.

Marriage to Martha was a significant step up for George socially and in business, as was evidenced by his replacing his own lower-level agent in London with the posh commercial connection of Robert Cary and Co., which author Ron Chernow described as “the top-drawer London firm.”

Martha was clearly a partner in the operation of Washington’s plantations, but with virtually no surviving correspondence between them, it is impossible to know how significant her role was.

The Adamses’ papers however provide plenty of evidence for Holton to argue that Abigail’s financial contribution was significantly larger than John’s, who spent most of his career in public service.

Abigail figured out early during the war years that with John away in the Continental Congress and later Europe, she needed to supplement the family’s income.

Like many successful entrepreneurs, she tried a number of different strategies over the years. Almost as soon as John arrived in France in 1778 as a diplomat, Abigail asked him “to order some saleable articles which I will mention,” and which she had sold in Boston to supplement her income.

Abigail took her profits from importing and retailing and put them into other investments, notably real estate and bonds. She bought bonds as early as 1777 and continued to buy them when she was in Europe, when John was vice president and when he was president.

She used a classic bond buying strategy. As the price of government bonds fell, she bought more and held them.

She bought bonds for as little as 12 percent of face value, Holton wrote.

Some bonds paid interest of as much as 6-8 percent. With depressed prices, just a few years of interest payments covered her initial cost, Holton explained. The rest was pure profit.

It’s a strategy that David Miller, the now-retired bond-buying genius of West Bank, would have appreciated.

Elbert Note- Weather beacon black: Lamenting the recent shutdown of KCCI’s weather beacon, hotel owner Jeff Hunter said, “Just call me old fashioned and bring back the Equitable Building Christmas bells.”