Fur Trade!

In other words, Chen Mo doesn't need to use his technology to make a profit or develop his power. Instead, he seizes other people's opportunities one step ahead and takes the benefits and power that originally belonged to others for himself.

Of course, only a super genius like Chen Mo, with an exceptionally developed brain that could hold an entire library and be well-versed in modern United States history, could accomplish this.

Chen Mo's acquisition of land in the North Midtown area of Manhattan is a result of his foresight, having laid the groundwork decades in advance. This is just the beginning.

He has already used up nearly half of the funds he brought from his space, but Chen Mo is not in a hurry to continue acquiring other land around New York, because those areas were not officially incorporated into New York City until 1898, becoming one of the five boroughs of New York, which is more than fifty years ago. Chen Mo has plenty of time to acquire them slowly.

Manhattan's future development will be rapid, and Chen Mo must act early and seize it before Manhattan development plan is released and no one realizes its value.

In addition to the future Midtown Manhattan and Upper Manhattan, Chen Mo also spent a lot of money to purchase a lot of land in the undeveloped areas of Lower Manhattan. Although the area of these lands is far smaller than that of the less valued areas in the north, the amount of money spent was even greater than that spent on purchasing land in the north. Of course, the returns that they can bring to Chen Mo in the short term are also huge. However, Chen Mo has no intention of selling them. Even after stopping the acquisition of other areas of New York outside of Manhattan, he is still using the remaining funds to acquire expensive land in the undeveloped areas of Lower Manhattan that are about to be developed.

However, Chen Mo entrusted all these matters to a team of highly ethical professional lawyers, accountants, and other personnel whom he had selected and hired.

With Chen Mo's superhuman perception ability, which is almost comparable to mind reading, no one with ill intentions or bad character can escape his precise perception. With enough money, he can easily select qualified personnel from many applicants and build a trustworthy exclusive team of professionals to serve him.

He himself temporarily put aside land acquisition matters and shifted his focus to the development of new industries.

The funds in the space will eventually run out, and he must establish a new source of funding to support the later planning and layout. However, he cannot arbitrarily change the technological process and come up with more advanced technologies to generate profits. Therefore, the high-profit industries that are already available in the United States have become Chen Mo's first choice.

I can't use my skills to make money, but I can just steal yours.

Chen Mo can easily get involved in any profitable industry and snatch the profits from other businessmen who are already making a fortune!

According to Chen Mo's memories, the most profitable industry in the United States at that time was not real estate or arms, but a business that many people who did not know the inside story could not even imagine or looked down upon: the Fur Trade!

High-quality furs were still considered luxury items in later generations, but in this era, only the upper class of society had the right and the means to own them.

Rare furs are expensive and are a symbol of status and prestige.

The upper class's fervent pursuit of furs is no less than modern people's enthusiasm for luxury cars and watches.

Especially in Europe.

Europe have a deep-seated love for fur. As early as the 1330s, the Britain royal family stipulated that only nobles could wear fur. Just as China white porcelain was considered a luxury item in Europe during the Middle Ages, Europe royalty regarded wearing fur as a symbol of noble status. Today, this fervent pursuit of fur has not diminished at all. On the contrary, with the development of capitalism, it has spread to the bourgeoisie who control a lot of wealth, and the demand for fur is getting bigger and bigger.

The United States, with its relatively undeveloped mountains, dense forests, and abundant wildlife resources, boasts an extremely rich fur production.

As early as the Europe colonial period, Europe who set foot on the Americas continent began to use materials such as felt, firearms, and brandy to trade with the Native American who lived in the mountains and forests and made a living by hunting for furs.

What were commonplace daily necessities for Europe were incredibly precious to the primitive and backward Native Americans. They could exchange some byproducts of their hunting for these very useful things that they could not produce themselves, which they considered the best thing ever.

This barter system, in which inexpensive utensils, knives, cloth, liquor, and other daily necessities were exchanged for valuable furs from Native Americans, has continued to this day, but has gradually been monopolized by some families and large companies using force.

They traded furs with Native American at low cost, processed them, and then shipped them to Europe or sold them directly in the United States. A single beaver pelt could increase in value by at least 1,000%, and could even yield profits of more than 200 times.

Chen Mo's target this time was one of these merchants who monopolized the Fur Trade.

John Jacob Astor, a German- United States businessman, was primarily involved in the Fur Trade and real estate investment. He was United States's first multimillionaire and is currently the richest man in the United States. He now resides in New York and owns a large amount of land in undeveloped areas. His immense wealth was achieved through his brutal monopoly on the Fur Trade with Indian tribes.

John Jacob Astor originally intended to gain a monopoly on the fur trade in the Northwest Territories, but the powerful Rocky Mountain Fur Company already had a complete monopoly on the fur trade in the Northwest Territories. John Jacob Astor, an outsider, tried and ultimately failed to break into the market.

After his plans were thwarted, John Jacob Astor focused his efforts on the vast region that stretched along the Missouri River, inhabited by numerous Indian tribes.

To achieve a monopoly on the fur trade in the region, John Jacob Astor resorted to any means necessary. He founded the American Fur Company and, through deception and even the use of force, gained complete monopoly power over the region, much like the feudal aristocracy of the past monopolized their estates.

Nominally, the United States. government ruled this vast land, but in reality, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company was the law itself. It possessed powerful military force and used deception and other means to monopolize the fur trade in the region, making huge profits from it and completely disregarding all laws enacted by Congress.