Editing John Jacob Astor (section)

===Fortune from fur trade===
[[File:John Jacob Astor.jpg|thumb|right|John Jacob Astor, by [[Gilbert Stuart]], {{circa|1794}}]]
Astor took advantage of the 1794 [[Jay Treaty]] between Great Britain and the United States, which opened new markets in Canada and the [[Great Lakes region]]. In London, Astor at once made a contract with the [[North West Company]], which from [[Montreal]] rivaled the trade interests of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]], then based in London.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morrison |first=David A |date=October 18, 2013 |title=The North West Company, 1779–1821 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-north-west-company-17791821-feature |access-date=March 23, 2024 |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Historica Canada}}</ref>

Astor imported furs from Montreal to New York and shipped them to Europe.<ref name="americana">{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Astor, John Jacob (merchant)|display=Astor, John Jacob, American merchant}}</ref> By 1800, he had amassed over a quarter of a million dollars<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |date=2023 |title=John Jacob Astor {{!}} Real Estate Mogul, Fur Trader, Philanthropist |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Jacob-Astor-American-businessman-1763-1848 |access-date=December 27, 2023}}</ref> (equivalent to about ${{Inflation|US|25|1800|r=-1}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}){{Inflation/fn|US}} and had become one of the leading figures in the fur trade. His agents worked throughout the western areas and were ruthless in competition. In 1800, following the example of the ''[[Empress of China (1783)|Empress of China]]'', the first American trading vessel to China, Astor traded mostly opium, but also, furs, teas, and [[sandalwood]] at the port of [[Guangzhou|Canton]] in China, and greatly benefited from it.<ref name="Madsen">Madsen, ''John Jacob Astor''  (2001)</ref>

The U.S. [[Embargo Act of 1807]] disrupted Astor's import/export business because it closed off trade with Canada. With the permission of President [[Thomas Jefferson]], Astor established the [[American Fur Company]] on April 6, 1808.<ref>Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "American Fur Company". Encyclopedia Britannica (2018), https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Fur-Company. Accessed April 5, 2021.</ref> He later formed subsidiaries: the [[Pacific Fur Company]], and the Southwest Fur Company (in which Canadians had a part), in order to control fur trading in the Great Lakes areas and [[Columbia River]] region. His Columbia River trading post at [[Fort Astoria]] (established in April 1811) was the first United States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810–1812 to reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover [[South Pass (Wyoming)|South Pass]], through which hundreds of thousands of settlers on the [[Oregon Trail|Oregon]], [[Mormon Trail|Mormon]], and [[California Trail]]s used to later pass through the [[Rocky Mountains]].<ref name="Madsen"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Morris |first=Larry |date=March 24, 2022 |title=Astor Expedition (1810–1813) |url=https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/astor_expedition_1810_1812/ |access-date=May 8, 2023 |website=Oregon Encyclopedia}}</ref>

Astor's fur trading ventures were disrupted during the [[War of 1812]], when the British captured his trading posts. In 1816, he joined the [[History of opium in China|opium smuggling trade]]. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]]-produced opium, and shipped the contraband to [[Guangzhou|Canton]] onboard the packet ship ''Macedonian''. Astor later left the Chinese opium trade and sold opium solely in Britain.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/heroin/etc/history.html|title=The Opium Kings: Opium Throughout History|work=[[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]]|publisher=PBS|access-date=September 4, 2011}}</ref>

Astor's business rebounded in 1817 after the U.S. Congress passed a [[Protectionism|protectionist]] law that barred foreign fur traders from U.S. territories. The American Fur Company came to dominate trading in the area around the Great Lakes, absorbing competitors in a monopoly. Astor had a townhouse at 233 Broadway in New York<ref name="Madsen 2002">{{cite book |last1=Madsen |first1=Axel |title=John Jacob Astor: America's First Multimillionaire |date=2002 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}</ref> and a country estate, Hellgate, in the northern part of the city.<ref name="Madsen 2002" />

In 1822, Astor established the [[Robert Stuart House]] on [[Mackinac Island]] in Michigan as headquarters for the reorganized American Fur Company, making the island a metropolis of the fur trade. [[Washington Irving]] described this at length, based on contemporary documents, diaries, etc., in his travelogue ''[[Astoria (book)|Astoria]]''. Astor's commercial connections extended over the entire globe, and his ships were found in every sea. He and Sarah moved to a townhouse on Prince Street in New York.<ref name="nie">{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Astor, John Jacob (merchant)|display=Astor, John Jacob. An American merchant|year=1905}}</ref>