OCR Text |
Show Real Estate Bargains Awaited Early Settlers I two Indian arrows yearly to Windsor Castle, plus a fifth of gold and silver ores. Early transactions shifted ownership own-ership of the present state of New Jersey several times. Charles II originally granted the area to his brother, the Duke of York, who deeded it to John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret as joint proprietors. In 1674 Berkeley sold West Jersey for 1,000 pounds ($2,800) to two Quakers named John Fenwick and Edward Byl-lings. Byl-lings. The executors of Carteret's will sold East Jersey at public auction in 1682 to William Penn and a number of associates for '3,400 pounds ($9,520). Half interest in the state of Maine, as represented by a royal grant to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, was bought from his heirs by the state of Massachusetts in 1677 for 1,250 pounds ($3,500). When the United States bought Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Napo-leon in 1803, the country got a lot for its money. The price of $15,000,000 averaged out to less than three cents an acre for the 827,000 square miles. Subsequently, Subsequent-ly, the Federal Government paid nearly a billion dollars to compensate com-pensate Indian tribes for their lands in the territory. Soaring real estate prices serve to remind Americans that the early bird gets the bargain. Peter Minuit's famous $24 purchase pur-chase of Manhattan Island is only one example of the good "buys" available when the country coun-try was young. Director Minuit's successor, Wouter Van Twiller, also got his money's worth when he gave a band of Indians about $1.65 worth of presents in exchange for 172-acre 172-acre Governor's Island in New York Harbor. Staten Island, too, was bought from Indians in 1631 for "certain parcels of goods." Chrjstopher Columbus started it all with an investment in ships estimated by various authorities at from $16,000 to $75,000, of which Columbus himself is said to have contributed the equivalent of $2,000. William Penn received in 1861 almost all of the-present state of Pennsylvania as payment for a loan of 16,000 British pounds made by his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, to King Charles II of England. At current exchange rates, this sum amounts to $44,-800. $44,-800. In later years his descendants descend-ants were paid eight times that much by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for their interests and were permitted to keep their private estates. Penn also was required to pay the king two beaver skins on January 1 each year, plus one-fifth of all gold and silver ore found within his territory. For the province of Maryland, Lord Baltimore had to deliver |