2 Of the Most Lucrative Land Deals in the History

 

The history of investing money in land sector is long enough and goes back to very old  times. The real estate industry sees some huge land deals nowadays, it can be the $200 million Penthouse in New York or the $2 billion Antilla building in Mumbai. But even  these deals pale when compared to some historical land deals. Of course, you won’t buy a piece of land for $24 worth of goods, but there are some great deals available on https://jiji.ng/land-and-plots-for-sale. In meantime, a bit of history on the juiciest land deals ever.

The Manhattan Purchase

We all heard the story how the Dutch settlers bought Manhattan island for 60 guilders ($24) worth of trinkets from the Native Americans  in 1626. But there is more to it. Funny or not, but  the Dutch got scammed by the Indians and purchased the island from the wrong people. Turns out that Peter Minuit,  who was General Director of the Dutch West India Company’s colony of New Netherlands, actually purchased Manhattan from the Canarsee tribe, who were Brooklyn based and were by no means the rightful owners. They used Manhattan island sometime, only to relax and fish. So when the Dutch showed up wanting to buy the land, Canarsees accepted the offer.  And finally, when the rightful owners showed up, they contested the purchase and the Dutch had to pay again. So they paid twice and later gave it up to keep control of another colony in South America. Now, land in Manhattan is valued at $2000 per square foot.

The Alaska Purchase

 

One of the largest land deals in history is The U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. Many people seriously believe that the land was never sold, but leased for 99 years, and by the end of the lease term  Brezhnev never requested to take it back. The real reason for selling Alaska is still unknown. According to one version, the emperor agreed to this deal to pay off country debts. In 1861 the emancipation reform abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire and the government had to pay compensation to its landowners. But treasury was empty so Tsar Alexander II had no other choice but to borrow money. Rothschilds lent him 15 million pounds sterling at 5% per annum. However, when the time came to pay the debt, the Russian Empire government simply did not have the money. Then the younger brother of Tsar, the Grand Duke Konstantin, offered to sell “something unnecessary” for the Empire. Alaska turned out to be the most unnecessary thing in Russia. Another version is that country had fought the British in the Crimean War and lost, so the Russian emperor, Alexander II, decided to sell Alaska as he was afraid that his colony could become a target and would be easily captured by the British if there was another conflict to happen. Finally, on March 30, 1867 at 04:00 after all night negotiations the treaty was signed with the purchase price set at $7.2 million ($123 million today), or about 2 cents per acre or $4.74/km2.