John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astir was first multimillionaire in the United States. He also was the America’s first millionaire Real Estate Investor.

He was known as the wealthiest American in his day and his fortune was one of the first significant ones to be accumulated in the 19th century.

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 fur trade. He dealt directly with Native Americans and in just six years, he made fortune.

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.

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.

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.

His most profitable investments were in New York City, and before long the man known as ‘Manhattan’s landlord’ was widely acknowledged as the wealthiest person of his time.

When he died in 1848, John Jacob Astor has a net worth of $20 million. In his will, he bequeathed $400,000 for the establishment of a reference library in New York City.
John Jacob Astor