Commodities For Dummies
Book image
Explore Book Buy On Amazon

The California Gold Rush was a defining moment in the history of the United States, focused on the commodity gold. When word spread that gold had been discovered in the San Francisco area, many young men rushed out West with a burning desire to strike it rich.

A number of success stories emerged from this era. However, one of the greatest untold stories of the California Gold Rush is the story of Samuel Brannan, who was California’s first millionaire. Brannan was the third man to find out that gold had been discovered in California.

Not surprisingly, the first two people who knew about the gold — John Sutter and James Marshall — wanted to keep the discovery a secret. Brannan had other plans.

Instead of keeping quiet about the discovery, Brannan quickly got out the word that gold had been discovered in California. What’s remarkable is that Brannan made a fortune without digging a single hole or prospecting for a single nugget of gold.

How did he make his money? By selling shovels to all the people who were interested in digging for the gold! Before he spread the world about the California gold, Brannan quietly bought almost all the shovels in Northern California.

When the prospectors flooded in, the price of shovels went through the roof, and Brannan was the only man in town to sell them. He reaped untold fortunes selling shovels during the Gold Rush.

One of the lessons of Brannan’s story is that you don’t have to actually dig for gold to profit from it. You need to keep your mind open to creative investment ideas that will allow you to profit creatively from the commodities boom.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Amine Bouchentouf is an internationally acclaimed author and market commentator. You can follow his market analysis at www.commodities-investors.com.

This article can be found in the category: