Discover how Scots officially bought America.

Worldwide wherever you go you will hear that it is part of the Scottish Culture that makes Scottish people are some of the most canny buyers. We make fun of ourselves continually calling it meanness but those who have ever studied the annual reports of the UK Charities Commission will know that on a basis of money donated that Scotland gives more to Charity per head of population than any other part of the UK. 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!

You will also find that most of the large financial groups if not based in Scotland will have important offices in Scotland particularly Edinburgh. 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 not the most important real estate deal in USA history it was almost certainly the largest.

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.

Together with fellow Scottish American James Munro he was sent by Jefferson to purchase 828,000 square miles of land from France. This land comprised of the states we now know as Iowa, Nebraska, Louisiana and Arkansas as well as most of Kansas, the two Dakotas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Minnesota.

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 give more details of the close Scottish cultural connection between Scotland and America on our main website ScottishJerk.com have a look for yourself. 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.

Leave a Reply

Free Blog Themes and Free Blog Templates