World's Wealthiest of all time

[Almighty Colin]

Astor, John Jacob —1763-1848 John Jacob Astor was born in Waldorf, Germany in 1763 and emigrated to the New World at the close of the Revolutionary War, when he was 21. He arrived in Baltimore, penniless, but was shrewd and ambitious. He opened a small fur shop in 1786 in New York City and soon became a leader of the China trade.

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His AMERICAN FUR COMPANY (1808) created the first American monopoly on the fur trade in U.S. territories. The Lewis and Clark Expeditions had opened his eyes to new opportunities in the Northwest Territories. He sent out two expeditions of his own, to establish a fur trading post at Fort Astor, which eventually became the city Astoria, Oregon.

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By 1810, John Jacob Astor was worth two million dollars. He began to invest all his surplus money in New York real estate, buying up lots in the desolate northern part of Manhattan and gambling that the growing city would catch up. When the government asked its wealthiest citizens to help fund the War of 1812, he did his part - clearly to his advantage, paying only eighty-eight cents on the dollar for two million dollars' worth of government bonds.

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At his death in 1848, Astor was the wealthiest person in the country, worth $20 million.

From: http://www.astorsbeechwood.com/JohnJacobAstor.html