became richest man in america through dope dealing

John Jacob Astor The German-born merchant who died the wealthiest American of his time, made his money in the opium trade.

In 1816, he joined the opium smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of Turkish opium, then shipped the contraband item to Canton on the packet ship Macedonian. Astor later left the China opium trade and sold solely to England. He was the first American to deal in opium in China but was abruptly stopped in 1819.

American involvement in the opium trade did not remain in the abstract realm of financial instruments such as bills. The lack of specie encouraged merchants to deal in opium directly. At first, the American merchants were hindered by the necessity of procuring their supplies from Turkey and Persia rather than India. In 1805, the Baltimore brig Entan arrived in Canton from Smyrna with forty-six chests and fifty-three boxes of opium, the equivalent of roughly three tons, signaling the arrival of the Americans in the direct opium trade.[25] Although the amount was rather small by the standards of the day, the route was deemed profitable enough to continue.  

John Jacob Astor, the German-born merchant who died the wealthiest American of his time, took an early interest in the opium trade. Making his money in the fur and pelt trade with Indians, Astor’s American Fur Company turned to China in 1802, sending at least one or two ships a year. After the company flooded the Canton market with American furs and pelts, Astor imitated the English merchants and turned to opium, which his company acquired in Turkey.
In 1808, when the United States passed the Embargo Act, precluding the United States from foreign trade, Astor received special presidential permission to continue trading with China.When the Chinese enforced their laws with more vigor in 1821, Astor abandoned the opium trade and diverted his attention to the Manhattan real-estate market.  But Astor’s involvement in the trade did not stop overnight; his opium was not only directed to Canton, but also occasionally surfaced in New York until 1825.

John Jacob Astor, progenitor of the Astor fortune and often called “America’s first millionaire,” was a mysterious magnet for money.

His biographer, Axel Madsen, explained how German immigrant to America, John Jacob, accumulated the original capital he would later invest in money-making ventures:  John Jacob Astor Until 1816, no Astor ship had carried opium. On July 15, 1816, the Macedonean arrived in Canton with, among other things, $110,000 in specie, 27 metric tons of ebony, 8 tons of mercury, and nearly 2.4 tons of opium. It was the first time an Astor vessel had gone to China without furs. The quicksilver [mercury] had been picked up in Gibraltar, the papaver somniferum taken aboard in Smyrna, Turkey. In February 1817, the Astor ship Seneca reached Canton with a cargo that included 5.7 metric tons of opium, also picked up in Smyrna. During the next two years the Astor vessels Boxer, Alexander, William and John, and Peddler carried opium cargos to Canton.

The upper end of the opium trade, however, belonged to a British monopoly devoted thousands of hectares of fertile land in Bengal to the cultivation of opium. The harvest was auctioned at Calcutta, while the yields of individual growers were sold in Bombay. Chinese dealers preferred chests that bore the stamp of the East India Company because the crops of independent growers were often adulterated with molasses or cow dung.

Astor's great-granddaughter, Helen Schermerhorn Astor married James “Rosy” Roosevelt, the half-brother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Incidentally, F.D.R's maternal grandfather, Warren Delano, Jr., also made his fortune in opium, working for the leading American opium trader – Russell and Co.

In 1808, when the United States passed the Embargo Act, precluding the United States from foreign trade, Astor received special presidential permission to continue trading with China.[26]  

When the Chinese enforced their laws with more vigor in 1821, Astor abandoned the opium trade and diverted his attention to the Manhattan real-estate market. 

NY Astor 400 Aristocrats

 

 

2014 The Astor family is embedded at every level of the modern beau monde — from the royals and the landowning classes, to Hollywood, rock ’n’ roll and, yes, the Middletons.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2738013/Why-never-10ft-one-Sam-Cam-s-racy-rellies-The-Astor-family-embedded-level-modern-beau-monde-writes-RICHARD-KAY.html

Royal Jewels measured in Centuries not Carats - Lady Astor snubbed everyone else.

MILLION DOLLAR AMERICAN PRINCESSES
smithsonianchannel.com/shows/million-dollar-american-princesses/1003587

America's richest heiresses traded cash for British royalty. Marriages between the daughters of new-money Americans and a cash-strapped British aristocracy hit its stride by 1895. But these unions come at a price, financially and emotionally. Snubbed new-money American families as they take England by storm and find love - and misery - as British royalty.
There are three kinds of British people: royals, nobles, and commoners. The official royal family comprises only the queen's direct relatives—her children, grandchildren in the male line, and some cousins.  The much larger nobility includes those with a direct ancestor who was granted a peerage by the monarch at some point in history.

 

Astor’s involvement in the trade did not stop overnight; his opium was not only directed to Canton, but also occasionally surfaced in New York until 1825.[27]

 

It is outrageous that this man is renowned as one of the wealthiest "investors" and philanthropists, when he made such a large chunk of his money through drug trafficking. 

John Coleman in his good book The Conspirator’s Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300, p. 131 notes,

“John Jacob Astor made a hugh fortune out of the China opium trade .... it was the Committee of 300 who chose who would be allowed to participate in the fabulously lucrative China opium trade, through its monopolistic BEIC, and the beneficiaries of their largess remained forever wedded to the Committee of 300.” Interestingly another Top 13 family, the Russells, was also one of the lucky ones to get a slice of the China opium trade. It is clear repeatedly from history that Astor was privy to inside information in the government, and maintained his own courier system. John Jacob Astor bought up large amounts of land in NY which land greatly increased in value. The Financial Panic of 1837 allowed him to foreclose on a large number of mortgages. John Jacob Astor’s wealth continued to skyrocket. As one biography said, “When it came to a question of principle versus profit, Astor was a practical man.” Put simply, he had no scruples. Astor had a reputation for being a ruthless landlord. He also had the reputation of not paying his legitimate debts. Astor became a banker, and sat on the board of 5 directors of the new national bank that Hamilton created for the U.S. government called the Bank of the United States. Astor owned a large block of the stock of the Bank of the United States. Astor also was fairly active during his life as a Freemason, holding several more key positions in the secret lodge life. John Jacob was the richest man in the United States. Note this reference. Meyers, Gustavus. History of the Great American Fortunes. London: Stationers Hall, 1909, p. 147 said, “Statistics issued in 1844 of manufacturers in the United States showed a total gross amount of $307,196,844 invested. Astor’s wealth, then, was one-fifteenth of the whole amount invested throughout the territory of the United States...” Is having 1/15th of all of what American money is invested not rich?

John Jacob Astor’s descendents had a penchant for secrecy, and set up things to rule from behind the scenes.

In contrast, to some of the other top families, the Astors perferred not to sit on boards of corporations they controlled. In 1890, a real estate expert calculated the Astors owned 1/20 of New York City real estate. After making their fortune while residing in the New York area, the Astors by and large have all gone to England. They still wield great financial power in the United States through proxies. Forum Magazine, Nov. 1889, commented that authorities estimated the Astors were worth $300,000, but that that figure had to be an underestimate. Today, my estimate of the Astors is that they are worth about 40 billion dollars.

One of the many foundations that the Astors created was the Vincent Astor Foundation, which is controlled from England by the Astors and has in the range of $100 million tax exempt dollars. The Vincent Astor Foundation has typically given to Catholic and Episcoplian needs, among other things. They also give money to agencies opposed to private ownership of guns. They give money to NY’s public library. Imagine how much influence that gives them, when the library is receiving regular help for general support? A 1971 Foundation Directory stated that the V. Astor foundation had its present emphasis on preventing juvenile delinquency. Why don’t I trust the Astor’s in helping out with law enforcement? The William Waldorf Foundation states that its purpose is ‘Promotion of mutual understanding and the diffusion of knowledge and culture among the United States and the dominions, colonies, and countries of the British Commonwealth.’ This sounds very similar to the public statement of purpose that the secretive Pilgrim Soc. has given out to those who need something about them. Assets for this foundation are a mere $64,000. Vincent Astor (now deceased) was a member of 41 private clubs, To give an idea of how much power just one of the many Astor men wield some of the businesses Vincent was involved include:

director- American Express Company dir. Atlantic Fruit and Sugar Co.
dir. Chase Manhattan Bank (of the Rockefellers)
dir. City and Suburban Homes Co.
dir. Classical Cinematograph Corporation
dir. Cuban-Dominican Sugar Co. dir. Great Northern Railroad
dir. Ill. Central Railroad
dir, Inter. Mercantile Marine Co. dir. National Park Bank of NY
dir. NY County Trust Co.
dir. Weekly Publications Inc. dir. Western Union Telegraph trustee NY
Zoological Soc.advisor to Bankers Trust of NYmember Amer. Museum of Nat.
Hist. member Nat. Instit. of Soc. Sciences(notice these last two like so many elite controlled organizations are heavily involved in the spread of the evolution theory.)

Just like the Rothschilds, DuPonts, and Rockefellers, the Astors always set one of their Astor males as the head of the entire family. This headship is passed down as a birthright within the different branches of the family, just as any King passes on his throne. On the corner of 33rd St. and 5th Ave. (the site later began the site of the Empire State Building) the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was built by William Waldorf, et. al. The hotel opened in Mar. 1893. It is described as ‘the ultimate in snob appeal.’ Later two Astor cousins built the Astoria (another even taller elite Hotel) in New York which opened in 1897. Of course, like many of the other elite famIlies, the Astors have theIr Maine property to get away and relax. In 1894, John Jacob wrote a novel A Journey in Other Worlds where he describes a society which operates on the idea of conserving energy. Strange how the elite likes to promote conservation among us ‘cattle.’ In the late 1800’s, the Illuminati began to reconfigure its outward face. The higher levels started creating innocent sounding cover organizations to hide their meetings behind. In 1901, the Astors contributed toward the creation of the Pilgrim Society, which was the cover organization for Amer. & Brit. 6° Princes of the Illuminati. I believe at least five Astors are now members of the Pilgrim Society. The Pilgrims had recently included David Astor, John Jacob Astor 8th, and William Waldorf Astor 3rd. And during the 1970s, Baron Astor of Hever was the President of the London branch of the Pilgrims. This implies that Astor of Hever was at least the next level up in the chain of command.

The Astors also have been very prominent in the Group’ which is Britian’s equivalent to the Skull & Bones Soc. In Britain, the Astor, along with about 20 other families dominate the Group, just as certain families like the Whitneys in the U.S. help dominate the Order of Skull & Bones.