Fort New Amsterdam and the Origin of Wall Street

Nouvelle-Angoulême

Today’s gallop through history begins with the Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano. In April of 1524 Verrazzano, from his ship La Dauphin, was the first known European to enter what is now New York Harbor.

Allegrini, Francesco (1729-17..). Graveur ; Zocchi, Giuseppe (1711-1767). Peintre (wiki commons)

Verrazanno took on an exploratory mission sponsored by King Francis the first of France. Verrazanno reported that the harbor was,

“a very agreeable situation located within two small prominent hills, in the midst of which flowed to the sea a very big river, which was deep within the mouth: and from sea to the hills of that (place) with the rising of the tides, which we found eight feet, any laden ship might have passed.”(New York Map Society)

Verrazzano named the place, Nouvelle-Angoulême, in honor of his patron who had gone by the name Francis of Angouleme before his ascension to the throne. Verrazzano noted on the comings and goings of the indigenous peoples before making his merry way onward. Verrazzano’s brother, Girolamo da Verrazano made the first map of the region and compiled into into a world map in 1629, giving a record of the first name of what would later become New York. Over the better part of a century other explorers and fur traders would periodically find their way into the harbor.

Approximate route of the voyage of Giovanni da Verrazano in North America in 1524. (Mathew Trump Creative Commons)

Henry Hudson

In the early 1600s, with the arrival of the English and the Dutch, the area began to receive focused attention from Europe. Henry Hudson failed twice to discover the mystical northern passage to China for England. Henry Hudson, commissioned by the Dutch, covertly attempted the same endeavor in 1609. Hudson “rediscovered” the harbor along his journey up the river that would later bear his name. His report on the abundance of beaver pelts available led to the first European colony within the harbor.

Henry Hudson, from Cyclopaedia of Universal History, 1885.

Beaver might not be a hot commodity today, but in 17th century Europe it was all the rage. The Beaver pelts were made into prized waterproof hats. Beaver anal glands, valued for castoreum– a secretion from anal glands found in beavers, also added to their value. Today castoreum is still valuable. It is found in some perfumes, cigarettes, and as a food additive. Perfume, with a note suggesting leather, is sourced often sourced from castoreum.

A bit of a side note, Hudson would later venture even further into what is now modern day Canada into what is now the Hudson Strait and the great expanse of the Hudson Bay. After enduring a brutal winter Hudson wished to press further into the bay but his crew mutinied. Hudson, his son, and seven others were set adrift never to be seen again.

John Collier‘s painting of Henry Hudson with his son and some crew members after a mutiny on his icebound ship. The boat was set adrift and never heard from again. Tate Britain, London. (wiki commons)

In the years following Hudson’s expedition the Dutch sent other expeditions to map out the area and an array of commercial vessels to partake in the fur trade.

The Dutch West India Company

With the establishment of the Dutch WEST India Company in 1621. Due in part to the massive financial successes of the Dutch East India Company, business minded folks of the time turned their gaze toward the new world. By the inception of the Dutch West India Company another capital venture, the United New Netherland Company, had been trading-primarily furs- along the Hudson River Basin for several years. The Dutch West India Company absorbed the United New Netherland Company. Plans were then made to send settlers to the area of New Amsterdam.

Flag of the Dutch West India Company (wiki commons)

The Compant built Fort Orange- now Albany, N.Y., and Fort Nassau on the Delaware River in 1624, Fort Good Hope on the site of Hartford on the Connecticut River, and finally-where our topic leads us today- Fort Amsterdam in 1626.

Fort Amsterdam (wiki commons)

The land that Fort Amsterdam was built on was purchased for sixty guilders… or what would now be roughly $1200 USD in today’s money. Now that’s the deal of a century. The New Netherland director, Peter Minuit, purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsee natives. It’s important to note that although Minuit did pay someone it was actually Wappinger Confederation who was in control of the area. Another example of a long train of misdeeds done against the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Peter Minuit, man who bought Manhattan for 60 guilders

The Dutch settlers began setting farms and plantations using imported slave labor. Tenants rented property for the use of the land, equipment, and buildings. Over the following decades more settlers came and Fort Amsterdam transitioned into a colony beginning its first growth spurt into what would later become the sprawling metropolis of New York City.

Peter Stuyvesant

New Amsterdam had a permanent population of 270 people and eighteen different languages were spoken within the boundaries of the colony by 1639. The religious services were held in one Reformed Protestant Dutch Church and other needs of the human condition were serviced by the colonies 17 taverns.

In 1653 the Dutch West India Company was granted self-rule, headed by Peter Stuyvesant. The New Amsterdam of Peter’s time was in stark contrast to the financial district that now claims the land. Author Sandra Deden recounting the world of New Amsterdam writes, [quote]

Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Netherland circa 1660 (wiki commons)

“Passing by the trading ships in the harbor, Stuyvesant might have headed toward downtown New Amsterdam, located along Beaver Bridge and Stone Streets. These streets still have their original names today. Along these streets of dirt and mud stood the small one-story wooden buildings of the fifteen homes, two taverns, firehouse, and brewery of the West India Company. Many of the homes had small vegetable patches and fruit trees. The colonists’ animals–pigs, cows, goats, and dogs–often wandered through the streets. The sounds of Dutch punctuated with French, Italian, American Indian, and African dialects filled the air.” [unquote].

Earliest Picture of Manhattan” (Image of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan)

Date circa 1630 (wiki commons)

The Building of the Wall

A very far cry from the world as it is now. Shortly after taking over Peter and other leaders in the community found it pertinent to build a wall. The goal of the wall was to protect the community from the wilderness and all of its dangers; including the indigenous populations and those rascally New Englanders that also called the surrounding areas home.

The Vigilant Stuyvesant’s Wall Street Gate, 19th-century painting by John Quidor. (wiki commons)

The wall was initially 12 feet tall and ran east to west protecting the northern border of the fort. This need for defense wasn’t without warrant.

The original city map called the Castello Plan from 1660, showing the wall on the right side (wiki commons)

The Peach Tree War

On September 15, 1655, The New Netherland colony was attacked by Native Americans over a raised tensions over New Sweden, a nearby colony in which the land had been initially claimed by Peter Minuit but was later a disputed territory between many European nations including Sweden and England. Historians Berthold Fernow and Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan noted in 1881 that these tensions were said to have broken out into an all out conflict after the murder of a young Wappinger woman named Tachiniki. Whom was said to have been murdered by a Dutch settler for stealing a peach. This conflict was later given the name the Peach Tree War. In total the native americans destroyed 28 farms, killed 100 settlers, and took 150 prisoners. Fort Amsterdam was also directly attacked by six hundred warriors who used boats to land on the shores of the mostly undefended fort.

Map of New-Nederland and New-Sweden ca. 1650 (wiki commons)

The fort was left relatively intact and luckily no one was killed. Many of the colonial forts were depopulated and sent to New Amsterdam-some temporarily and others permanently.

The Granger Collection, New York / This wood engraving shows Dutch colonists meeting with the Wappinger at the end of a war between the two groups

The Origin of Wall Street

A major thoroughfare was eventually developed along the wall which was given the name Wall Street. After some time the wall began to fall into disrepair primarily due to the colonists and the West India Company arguing who was responsible for maintaining the wall. It became so laughable that local farmers would run their livestock through it to prove its worthlessness. Peter Stuyvesant tried raising money for its repair but ultimately failed.

New Amsterdam in 1664 (looking approximately due north) (wiki commons)

The Fort remained New Amsterdam until British ships captured the city in 1664. Remarkably, the wall stood until 1699 when the British finally tore it down. By this time Wall Street had become a place of trade and commerce. It was a bustling place of shops, merchants, warehouses, and even the city hall.

in the 1700s, a corner of Wall Street at Pearl Street played host to the city’s official slave market. (source)

It remained in British control until the Revolutionary War. After the conclusion of the war the United State’s first president, good ol’ George Washington, took his oath of office at Federal Hall located on Wall Street in New York City. It remained a center for local business transactions and an important hub for the growing nation until the early 19th century.

“Federal Hall on Wall Street in 1789. It was the seat of the U.S. government from 1785 to 1790.” (source)

Wall Street as an Economic Hub

The first stock exchange in the US was based in Philadelphia and opened in 1790. A New York based merchant group visited the stock exchange in Philadelphia and quickly returned to New York to establish the New York Stock Exchange. Initially the stock exchange had a rather homely home- a rented room on Wall Street. A seat on the exchange came at a cost of $25 bucks… or what would now be about $460 dollars. To put this in a contemporary context a seat would now cost anywhere from $4000 to $4 million dollars.

View in Wall Street from the Corner of Broad (Source)

By 1886 over a million shares were traded daily, by 1929 10 million shares, by 1982 100 million shares, and today anywhere from 2-6 billion shares are traded daily on the New York Stock Exchange.

“16 exchanges account for about 87% of total stock exchange market capitalization.” (Source)

Modern Wall Street

The New York Stock Exchange remained mostly unchanged until it found its current home in 1903 at a cost of $4 million dollars about $114 million in today’s dollars.

Those working on Wall Street today couldn’t possibly imagine the lives of those who trod the same ground before them. According to Bloomberg’s report on the finances of those working in the financial industry in New York,

[quote] “Annual pay, including bonuses, in New York City’s securities industry rose to $422,500 on average in 2017. Salaries gained as pretax profits rose 42 percent to $24.5 billion last year.” [unquote]

From its humble origins as a beaver mine to its current position of financial powerhouse Wall Street remains long after the wall itself has been torn down. Thanks for your time.

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