Try it at 8% a YEAR
That's $627 million per acre. However a paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York lists one of the highest cost pieces of property in New York at about $100 million per acre (now the Time Warner Center, just off of Central Park), with prices dropping quickly as you get away from the Empire State Building. Many on the map were under $7.3 million / acre ($168/square foot) even on Manhattan.
***In the early 1600s, the American Indians sold an island, now called Manhattan in New York, for various beads and trinkets worth about $16****
Years ago Louis L’Amour was on the TODAY Show and said that we got took. The indians that sold the land didn’t own it, were from somewhere else, and just happened to be in the area fishing when the Europeans approached them about selling it.
The most relevant thing I see to this question is: What was the land “worth” at the time, and what were the beads and trinkets worth to the Indians?
Given that those trinkets were probably items that the Indians did not have and could not produce, that would’ve given them significant value as jewels.
From all I’ve heard, the value of diamonds has been very artificially manipulated for generations by the DeBeers corporation, who control most of the world’s supply.
After all, what is a diamond? It’s a trinket. It’s a hard rock that happens to also look pretty. The value is in its beauty, its prestige, and in its (artificially manipulated?) rarity.
Of course, the value of such trinkets would drop as they became more common.
At the time, the island was undeveloped, and the total population of North America (which probably includes Canada and Mexico as well) was around 1 million. So the population of the continent was probably around 1/400th of what it is today. There was PLENTY of land out there for the taking (whatever property you reside on, imagine that there is 400 times that amount freely available for you, and that your situation is the NORM for the entire continent.
When there’s that much land available, it can and WILL be bought and sold VERY cheaply.
Anyway, the following article makes the point that “there is no evidence either the Dutch or the Indians believed they had robbed or been robbed by the other party to the deal.”
the indians thought they were cheating the dutch. no concept of property.
Just wait until the IRS hears this. Those Indians have a huge tax bill coming with penalties.
Yeah, I am sitting here laughing at the native Americans. Who would borrow 1,200 Billion dollars from a country, so we can afford to buy 265 Billion worth of trinkets from them?.....WAIT A MINUTE.....are we stupider den dem injuns?? me wunderz win dey wil giv us sum blanquets and put us on reservashuns?