Apr

10

From Wall Street and the Wilds, by A. W. Dimock, pages 178-180:

Gold business improved and my balance was growing when the Fisk and Gould gang entered the gold market. Fortunately I had not the capital to enter the lists with them and besides I was afraid. Their methods lacked sense and represented brute force only and the corner they were running was foredoomed to destruction, but their immediate power was uncanny. For they not only had money, but they controlled a bank which would have certified their checks in payment for all the gold on earth and they so controlled the courts that they could have filled their pockets with blank injunctions and mandamuses or even the profane form of the latter suggested by Fisk himself.

The price of gold had been run up to a point where it was impossible to hold it and ruin was in sight. Fisk's best suggestion to force mercantile and other shorts to cover was to advertise names and amounts in the morning journals with the warning that the price would be at once put to two hundred unless all the shorts covered. There was sense enough in the gang to suppress that manifesto of folly, for Gould had a scheme of sheer diabolism brooding in his more subtle mind.

[ … ]

That the corner was broken was clear to me and that a crash was coming seemed certain, so I sold and I sold and I sold.

[ … ]

Though I had made many a fine turn as the market reeled back and forth that day and my books at its close showed cash assets that would put financial trouble behind me for all time, yet a deadly fear held me in its grip. For my chief sales had been to the Gould broker, Speyers, and the Gould purpose to repudiate these purchases was now apparent. The intent to repudiate all purchases and enforce all sales, was confirmed by the course of the swindlers on the following day. The robbery had been deliberate and the FiskGould brokers who had been deputed to sell received instructions to make no sales to Speyers but to sell to others without regard to what Speyers was bidding.

From The Wizard of Wall Street and His Wealth, by Trumbull White:

Fisk, in his dark back office across the street, with his coat off, swaggered up and down, ‘a big cane in his hand,’ and called himself the Napoleon of Wall street. He really believed that he directed the movement, and while the street outside imagined that he and Gould were one family, and that his purchases were made for the clique, Gould was silently flinging away his gold at any price he could get for it.

Whether Fisk really expected to carry out his contract, and force the bears to settle or not, is doubtful, but the evidence seems to show that he was in earnest and felt sure of success. His orders were unlimited. ‘Put it up to 150,’ was one which he sent to the gold-room. Gold rose to 150. At length the bid was made—‘160 for any part of five millions,’—‘162 for five millions.’ No answer was made and the offer was repeated—‘162 for any part of five millions.’ A voice replied, ‘Sold one million at 62,’ The bubble suddenly burst, and within fifteen minutes, amid an excitement without parallel even in the wildest excitements of the war, the clique workers were literally swept away and left struggling by themselves, bidding still 160 for gold in millions which no one would any longer take their word for, while the premium sank rapidly to 135. A moment later the telegraph brought the government order from Washington to sell, and the result was no longer possible to dispute. Mr. Fisk had gone too127 far, while Mr. Gould had secretly weakened the ground under his feet.

[ … ]

Every person involved in the affair seemed to have lost money, and dozens of brokers were swept from the street. But Mr. Jay Gould and Mr. James Fisk, Jr., continued to reign over Erie, and no one can say that their power or their credit was sensibly diminished by a shock which, for the time, prostrated all the interests of the country.

For an overview: Black Friday (1869)

some items about Jay Gould. he was expert surveyor, writer, accountant, lawyer, metal tinkerer, and unblemished family man. passed away with 100 million dollar estate in 1892. had a grandson who was US squash champ, whose trophy i have.

Vic's twitter feed


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Archives

Resources & Links

Search