Read about how Scottish Americans bought America.
Scots are known as some of the most careful canny buyers in the world so much so that people think it is part of our Scottish culture to be mean with money. As Scots we even go so far as to promote the idea that we are mean with money but anyone looking at official Charity statistics see we give far more than our English neighbours. Just don’t let anyone else find that out.
The Royal Bank of Scotland is the most prosperous banks in the UK although it is no longer owned by the Scottish royal family. I can tell you however that the British Queen does have an account with Coutts Bank which is a subsidiary of RBS. For that matter so does the King of Soccer David Beckham and his wife!
Many of the most influential investment groups have either their headquarters or a main office in Scotland They want to capitalize on the money handling and investment skills of the Scottish people.
Could this be the reason why two people of Scottish American descent were chosen by President Jefferson to handle perhaps one of the most important financial land transactions that America ever entered into? If it wasn’t the most expensive purchase of land in any single transaction it certainly had to be the largest in terms of acreage.
One of the people sent by Jefferson was Robert Livingston a descendant of Lord Livingston who had served Guardian to the young Mary Queen of Scots after she was born 1542 so he clearly had a strong Scottish culture in his family background.However Livingston was also a strong influence in early American politics even to being one of the five people who had drafted the American Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Some people have pointed to the very strong resemblance of the American Independence Declaration to the Scottish cultural equivalent the Declaration of Arbroath drawn up in 1320 claiming independence from the English conquerors. Although Livingston was not one of the original people to publicly sign that Declaration of Independence due to other business commitments back in New York he was the person who administrated the oath of allegiance to the new president so he was definitely a Scottish American with a strong Scottish culture with a foot in both camps.
Livingston was sent By President Jefferson with another Scottish American James Munro to France to negotiate the purchase of over 828,000 square miles of land. This included what are now the states of Louisiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Nebraska and most of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana.
At a price equivalent to only 3 cents an acre or $15 million in total these two Scottish American using their Scottish culture background were able to double the size of America with one stroke of the pen.
These Scottish Americans partly because of their Scottish culture knew the value of land and were willing to invest in it.We have established a special website specially for Scottish Americans and others interested in their Scottish cultural connection on ScottishJerk.com If you thought these Scots buying so much land from the French was a bargain check out our Scottish land deal with this unique gift idea but very limited offer.
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