[1] [2] He operated a successful Boston distillery, along with his Holmes uncles, and was the senior partner in a firm involved in the fisheries and the West Indies trade.

He relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia during Father Le Loutre's War and engaged in shipping ventures which brought him both North American and European goods, and extended credit, prosecuted debts, and settled estates.

He purchased Halifax properties, which included the over-extended poor, likely the source of the comment that he was a "Litigious troublesome Man… who has treated us in a Barbarous cruel manner."

In 1757, he became a leader in the committee of Halifax freeholders which used legal effort to force Governor Charles Lawrence to convene a representative assembly in October 1758, Salter was amongst its 20 members.

The large house he constructed at the corner of Hollis and Salter streets, about 1760 was eventually purchased by William Lawson and, later demolished to become part of the site of Maritime Place, in downtown Halifax.