Larry Schweikert

And somehow he started looking into furs.

He heard about it from a friend.

They were drinking, and he heard about it from a friend.

He said, well, let me look into that.

So one thing led to another, and before too long, Astor created the American Fur Company, operating in many of the same areas where the British were.

But they weren't the main competitor, and this is the amazing thing.

The biggest competitor in these areas was American monopolistic fur companies that were given fur trading licenses by the U.S.

government.

And Astor said, I'm going to put them all out of business.

So he developed a huge network of Indians and white, they're called Engagis, people who were traveling fur trappers and salesmen.

And they would bring him the furs because he paid more.

And to Indians, he also paid in alcohol and guns, which you weren't supposed to do.

And in a very short time, by 1819, the American government completely pulled out of the fur trading business, and we ended a government monopoly, largely due to John Jacob Astor, who built a fortune.

And then he took it back to New York, and he poured it into building apartment buildings.

Astor is unlike most other big American entrepreneurs, say Carnegie or Rockefeller, in that he didn't give away much of his fortune to charity.

He almost stands alone in that way.

But he did bring America into the 19th century.

Right.

So it was Astor not only against the U.S.

government, but the British government as well.