Talk:John Jacob Astor

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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on April 6, 2013, April 6, 2021, and April 6, 2024.

Did he steal his wealth from the Emerick's?

Media:http://genforum.genealogy.com/emrich/messages/88.html

-Some distant grandson of John Nicholas Emerick.

Opium smuggling

I think the allegation of opium smuggling needs more support. Is it only Front Line? Well they must have their references, and it would be good to know those. One short paragraph on a web page seems insufficient. Bob Burkhardt (talk) 21:52, 7 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

May as well remove "smuggling" from overview due to lack of support. After quickly searching him and opium, it doesn't seem to be so much of him "smuggling" as it was simply exchanging/selling it. XXSNUGGUMSXX (talk) 04:19, 9 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Which was smuggling. It was illegal in Qing China. —

Llywelyn II

17:35, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It was illegal until the Opium Wars, when England and the US jammed drugs down China's throat. Kind of funny, in light of today's fixation with evil drug dealers. 116.231.73.114 (talk) 00:54, 1 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

New Source

The German Historical Institute has published a short biographical article on John Jacob Astor that can be found here: http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=6 Immigrantentrep (talk) 15:03, 30 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm working on adding some material in from the GHI's page now. Let me know if I've done anything wrong, as this is my first edit. Thanks! Thellomerca (talk) 14:33, 7 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:John Jacob Astor/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

As a basic biography, it also need information such as:

his parents
his spouse (or some reference as "daughter of XXX and his wife YYY", or something to that order)

His personal life and career biographies should be separated or better integrated. Currently, it is a bit awkward. For the Anishinaabe project, there should be mention of his partnerships with Anishinaabe communities. In the American Fur Company article, this relationship could be discussed in more detail. Also, do anyone know why he bequeathed the majority of his wealth to his second son rather than his first son?

CJLippert 23:30, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Last edited at 23:30, 23 October 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 20:14, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Plagiarism?

Has anyone else noticed how closely much of the information contained in this article resembles other sources. Or is it the other way around? Since two of the sources I have been looking at are more recent--2015 publication dates, one self-published--I cannot tell who is copying whom?! Here is a source I KNOW has copied Wikipedi: http://entrepreneurhalloffame.com/john-jacob-astor/

Sources: Walker, J. P. (2015). The Legendary Mountain Men of North America. Raleigh, NC: Lulu Co. pp. 154–158. ISBN 9781312921511. Kitter, Walter (2015). A Place That I Love: A Tour Drivers Perspective of Mackinac Island. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 9781514414552.

I think it needs to be addressed. Ellsie.c (talk) 01:18, 9 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

$20M in 1848 was most certainly not equivalent to $110B in 2006.

I have already made the correction, and used 2016 for the inflation calculation.

Where on earth did the previous Wikipedian get that absurd figure, which implies that a dollar in 1848 was the equivalent of nearly $5,500 in 2006?Pithecanthropus4152 (talk) 19:20, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Net worth adjusted for inflation?

There has been a lot of disagreement about how Astor's net worth translates to today's money. Forbes says $110 billion, whereas the "Legacy" section of the article says $600 million, and an editor recently changed the figure in the infobox to $4.1 billion. I'm not taking a stance on this; just pointing out the discrepancy so hopefully other people can work it out. Ionmars10 (talk) 22:38, 11 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]