John Jacob Astor – First multimillionaire in United States

John Jacob Astir was one of the first multimillionaire in the United States. He arrived in New York practically penniless in the spring of 1784, and when he died in 1848 he left a fortune of some twenty millions.

He was born into poor family in Germany in 1763.

John Jacob Astor, earned a massive fortune through trade. When the rise of the Chinese trade, he began in 1808 with the American Fur Company, then bought five clipper ships and held a monopoly on the fur trade to China.

He carried beaver and otter pelts to China and returned with silk, tea and tea ware.

The cargo of teas would be sold almost on arrival (11 or 2 moths after the ship left New York in May) to whole grocers, for their notes at four and six months.

It is aid that part of his success lay in the fact that he made up for the trade deficiency in gold, not opium and that he used the fastest ships available at the time.

Astor increased his wealth with this Chinese trade. His ships returned from China with tea that provided profits of as much as $100,000 for a single cargo.

John Jacob Astor at one period of his life has several vessels operating in this way. They would go to the Pacific (Oregon) and carry thence furs to Canton. These would be sold at large profits,

Then the cargoes of tea shipped to New York would be duly received, on which Astor did not have to pay duty to the United States for year and a half.

When the fur trade began declining in 1810 and tea from India began to cut into his China profits, Astor turned his attention to real estate in New York , where he made even more money.
John Jacob Astor – First multimillionaire in United States