is dwelling to 223
Broadway, on the site of the Astor House of to-day. He lived here, with
one removal, for upwards of twenty-five years. The house was plain and
simple, but he was satisfied with it. He was now worth a quarter of a
million dollars, and his business was growing rapidly. The fur trade was
exceedingly profitable. A beaver skin could be bought from the trappers
in western New York for one dollar and sold in London for six dollars
and a quarter. By investing this amount in English manufactures, the six
dollars and a quarter received for the skin could be made to produce ten
dollars paid for the English goods in New York.

The Chinese trade was also very profitable. China was an excellent
market for furs. They brought high prices, and the proceeds could always
be invested in teas and silks, which sold well in New York. His profit
on a voyage would sometimes reach seventy thousand dollars, and the
average gain on a lucky venture of this kind was thirty thousand
dollars. The high prices produced by the war of 1812-15 were also in Mr.
Astor's favor. His ships were all remarkably lucky in escaping capture
by the enemy, and he was almost the only merchant who had a cargo of tea
in the market. Tea having reached double its usual price, he was enabled
to reap immense profits from his ventures.

Mr. Francis, in his _Old Merchants of New York_, makes the following
revelation of the manner in which Mr. Astor found it possible to carry
on such an immense business. He says:

"A house that could raise money enough, thirty years ago, to send
$260,000 in specie, could soon have an uncommon capital; and this was
the working of the old system. The Griswolds owned the ship Panama. They
started her from New York in the month of May, with a cargo of perhaps
$30,000 worth of ginseng, spelter, lead, iron, etc., and $170,000 in
Spanish dollars. The ship goes on the voyage, reaches Whampoa in safety
(a few miles below Canton). Her supercargo, in two months, has her
loaded with tea, some chinaware, a great deal of cassia, or false
cinnamon, and a few other articles. Suppose the cargo mainly tea,
costing about thirty-seven cents (at that time) per pound on the
average.

"The duty was enormous in those days. It was twice the cost of the tea,
at least; so that a cargo of $200,000, when it had paid duty of
seventy-five cents per pound (which would be $400,000), amounted to
$600,000. The profit was at least fifty per cent, on the orig