Book Description

This is the annotated print edition of William Worthington Fowler's classic chronicle of the New York traded markets from 1860-1880, a period that spanned the Civil War, the post war bubble, worthless paper money, the Black Friday Gold Panic of 1869, the Great Panic of 1873, and the consequent first and worst seven year Great Depression. Fowler witnessed how U.S. government paper money replaced specie leading to bubbles, panics, and crashes.William Worthington Fowler met the most influential financiers of the day including Jay Gould, James "Diamond Jim" Fisk, Jr., Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jacob Little, Daniel Drew, Leonard Jerome, Addison Jerome, David Groesbeck, and Henry Keep. Their fortunes rose and fell on margin, carry, and derivatives including puts, calls, and futures. They risked fortunes speculating in equities and a wide range of commodities including gold, silver, cotton, and more. Fowler's tale entertains as he exposes the great corners, trading rings, conspiracies, bear twists, manipulations, and frauds.High rolling traders accumulated and lost massive wealth. Wall Street ran red with the blood of suicides and murder. A lucky few survived and thrived, and of those a tiny fraction had lasting influence.This annotated edition draws parallels between the events in Fowler's time and identical issues in today's markets. This edition includes corrections, where appropriate, to the original text. Endnotes include supplemental biographical data and information of general interest.