Historical Figure - Jay Gould

Jay Gould (1836-1892) was a railroad baron and speculator. He was unscrupulous in his amassing of power; gaining control of 15% the nation's rail lines. While that may be said of most robber barons of that era, Gould was one of the worst. He was not above bribery and wrecking havoc in the stock market.

The two most famous examples was his  partnership with Boss Tweed and the cornering of the gold market.

He put Boss Tweed on the Board of Directors and in return, Boss Tweed passed legislation in the City Hall favorable to Gould.

In August 1869, Gould gathered friends and formed a group to start buying as much gold as possible. It was believed that the bonds being sold by the US Government to finance the Reconstruction would be bought back with gold. Once the price started to rise, hitting $162 an ounce, President Grant had the government start selling gold and that caused the gold market to crash on September 20th.

 To the left is a photograph of the price board that I found on wikipedia. It was entered into evidence at a Congressional Hearing regarding the crash.












For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC