Essays on Astor

John Jacob Astor was a German-American businessman, born in 1763 who made a fortune in the fur business before diversifying his interesting to include the import and export of general merchandise between the United States, China, and Europe. At the time of his death in 1848, Astor was one of the wealthiest men in the country (Youngman, 1908). Astor, who was born poor in Germany, decided to create a new life for himself in the newly independent United States of America. On the voyage between Europe and the U.S., Astor had the fortune of meeting another passenger who introduced ...

Abstract

“Bartleby the Scrivener” is a marvelous short story of the American nineteen century that has been discussed greatly from various disciplinary perspectives over the last century. Bartleby has been seen as a revolutionary figure who intentionally disrupts the capitalist system and has been traced to numerous real people, including Thoreau, Emerson, and even Melville himself. Critics have attached numerous equivalences to the protagonist; therefore, it is important to study the historical, political, and cultural context to choose the proper one. “Bartleby the Scrivener” demonstrated not only allusion to specific people and conflicts in New York but also showed class ...

The Central Issue

The central issue in this case is the dominance of the American Fur Company in the fur trade. The case outlines the rise of Astor from a paid worker to a millionaire in the fur trade and the tactics that he employed in ensuring that he downplayed the efforts of other fur trading companies.

Recommended Course of Action

Since Astor had ensured that the other fur trading companies’ efforts in the trade, the government should have passed and enacted laws that outlawed extrapolated prices of goods and equitable pay for the fur. These government efforts should have included deploying civil officers to the west to ...