s and in being
extremely generous to them when they failed to pay up. From 1789 to 1823
the Government lost more than $250,000,000 in duties,[90] all of which
sum represented what the shippers owed and did not, or could not, pay.
And no criminal proceedings were brought against any of these
defaulters.

This, however, was not all that the Government did for the favored,
pampered class that it represented. Laws were severe against labor-union
strikes, which were frequently judicially adjudged conspiracies.
Theoretically, law inhibited monopoly, but monopolies existed, because
law ceases to be effective law when it is not enforced; and the
propertied interests took care that it was not enforced. Their own class
was powerful in every branch of Government. Furthermore, they had the
money to buy political subserviency and legal dexterity. The $35,000
that Astor paid to Cass, the very official who, as Secretary of War, had
jurisdiction over the Indian tribes and over the Indian trade, and the
sums that Astor paid to Benton, were, it may well be supposed, only the
merest parts of the total sums that he disbursed to officials and
politicians, high and low.

ASTOR'S MONOPOLIES.

Astor profited richly from his monopolies. His monopoly of furs in the
West was made a basis for the creation of other monopolies. China was a
voracious and highly profitable market for furs. In exchange for the
cargoes of these that he sent there, his ships would be loaded with teas
and silks. These products he sold at exorbitant prices in New York. His
profits from a single voyage sometimes reached $70,000; the average
profits from a single voyage were $30,000. During the War of 1812-15 tea
rose to double its usual price. Astor was invariably lucky in that his
ships escaped capture. At one period he was about the only merchant who
had a cargo of tea in the market. He exacted, and was allowed to exact,
his own price.

Meanwhile, Astor was setting about making himself the richest and
largest landowner in the country. His were not the most extensive land
possessions in point of extent but in regard to value. He aimed at being
a great city, not a great rural, landlord. It was estimated that his
trade in furs and associated commerce brought him a clear annual revenue
of about two million dollars. This estimate was palpably inadequate. Not
only did he reap enormous profits from the fur trade, but also from
banking privileges in which he was a conspicu