Populated by a larger-than-life cast—including Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant; President Thomas Jefferson; America’s first multimillionaire, John Jacob Astor; and mountain man Kit Carson—Fur, Fortune, and Empire is the most comprehensive and compelling history of the American fur trade ever written.
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Background Information
The European desire for North American furs motivated much of the early exploration and trade in the northern parts of North America. John Jacob Astor, the first of many men to bear the name, made a fortune in the fur trade and expanded it vastly with real estate holdings in Manhattan. Christopher "Kit" Carson was famous guide and explorer in the early American West. The despite the small size of Holland, the Dutch sent out explorers that had a significant impact on the exploration of the New World.