Purchase of Manhattan

On May 24, 1626, Minuit was credited with purchasing the island from the natives (most likely the Lenape tribe) in exchange for trade goods valued at 60 guilders.

The figure of 60 guilders comes from a letter by a member of the board of the Dutch West India Company, Pieter Janszoon Schagen, to the Staten-Generaal (States General) in November 1626. In 1846 a New York historian converted the figure of Fl 60 (or 60 guilders) to US$24. "[A] variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars," as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 had the approximate value of $1000 in 2006, according to the Institute for Social History of Amsterdam Based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992.

The transaction is often viewed as one-sided, usually to the benefit of the Dutch, though one popular history of Manhattan claims that Minuit actually purchased the island from the wrong tribe (the Canarsee, who lived on Long Island). In any event, there is no evidence that either the Dutch or the Indians believed they had swindled, or been swindled by, the other party to the deal.  An 1877 embellishment of the myth claimed that the Dutch offered "beads, buttons and other trinkets," though there is no evidence for this. A contemporary purchase of rights in nearby Staten Island, to which Minuit was also party, involved duffel cloth, iron kettles and axe heads, hoes, wampum, drilling awls, "Jew's harps", and "diverse other wares". "If similar trade goods were involved in the Manhattan arrangement", Burrows and Wallace surmise, "then the Dutch were engaged in high-end technology transfer, handing over equipment of enormous usefulness in tasks ranging from clearing land to drilling wampum".

A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625 construction was started on a citadel and a Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam). Manhattan Island was chosen as the site of Fort Amsterdam, a citadel for the protection of the new arrivals; its 1625 establishment is recognized as the birth date of New York City. According to the document by Pieter Janszoon Schagen our people (ons Volck)—Peter Minuit is not mentioned explicitly there—acquired Manhattan in 1626 from Native American Lenape people in exchange for trade goods worth 60 guilders, often said to be worth 24 dollars, though (by comparing the price of bread and other goods) actually amounts to around $1000 in modern currency (calculation by the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam).

Peter Schaghen, the author of this document, was the representative of the States General in the Assembly of the Nineteen of the West India Company. In the late summer of 1626 he reported the arrival of the ship Wapen van Amsterdam, newly arrived from New Netherland. In his report to the directors of the WIC he announced the purchase of Manhattan Island for the value of 60 guilders. The Schaghen letter is the earliest reference to the purchase of the island which would become the center of New Netherland. The original of this document is held by the Rijksarchief in The Hague.

Rcvd. 7 November 1626

High and Mighty Lords,

Yesterday the ship the Arms of Amsterdam arrived here. It sailed from New Netherland out of the River Mauritius on the 23d of September. They report that our people are in good spirit and live in peace. The women also have borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders. It is 11,000 morgens in size [about 22,000 acres]. They had all their grain sowed by the middle of May, and reaped by the middle of August They sent samples of these summer grains: wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, beans and flax. The cargo of the aforesaid ship is:

7246 Beaver skins

178½ Otter skins

675 Otter skins

48 Mink skins

36 Lynx skins

33 Minks

34 Muskrat skins

Many oak timbers and nut wood. Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, be commended to the mercy of the Almighty,

In Amsterdam, the 5th of November anno 1626.

Your High and Mightinesses' obedient, P.Schaghen

Recep. 7 November 1626

Hooghe Moghende Heeren

Hier is ghister t'schip t'wapen van Amsterdam aengekomen ende is den 23en septem: uyt Nieu Nederlant gezeylt uyt de Rivier Mauritius. rapporteren dat ons volck daer kloec is en: vreedigh leven hare vrouwen hebben ooc kinderen aldaer gebaert hebben t'eylant Manhattes van de wilde gekocht, voor de waerde van 60 guld: is groot 11000 morgen. hebbende alle koren half mey gezeyt, ende half augusto gemayd. daer van zeyndende munsterkens van zomerkoren, als taruw, Rogge, garst, haver boucweyt, knarizaet, boontjes en: vlas.

Het Cargasoen van tvsz: schip is

7246 bevers vellen

1781/2 otters vellen

675 otters vellen

48 Mincke vellen

36 Catloes-vellen

33 Mincken

34 Ratte vellekens.

Veel eycken balcken. En: Noten-hout.

Hier mede Hooghe Moghende Heeren. zyt den Almogende

en genaden bevolen.

In Amsterdam den 5en Novem: Ao 1626

Uwe Hoo: Moo: Dienstwillighe

P. Schaghen　

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan

www.nnp.org/nnp/documents/sidebyside.html

2/8/2011 Joshua Lee Freeman. :). M.