They Printed Fake Stock to Beat the Richest Man in America

They printed stock out of thin air, bought judges and politicians, fled New York with $6 million in cash… and still won. This is the Erie War of 1868: Cornelius Vanderbilt vs. Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk and Jay Gould. The richest man in America tried to take over the Erie Railroad. His rivals answered with a printing press, a war of dueling judges, a hotel turned into a fortress, and a law bought in Albany. And when the dust settled, the people who paid for all of it weren't even in the room. CHAPTERS 0:00 Directors running with $6 million 1:13 Two old men, two young men 3:41 The printing press trick 6:32 Two judges, opposite orders 8:07 Fort Taylor: a hotel under siege 9:35 How they bought a law 12:07 The settlement: who really paid? 13:34 How each of them ended 15:26 The lesson nobody tells you MAIN SOURCE Charles Francis Adams Jr., "A Chapter of Erie" (1869), in Chapters of Erie and Other Essays (1871). Public domain. Also: Gustavus Myers, History of the Great American Fortunes (1910); Britannica and Wikipedia entries on the people involved. Disputed stories (the "watered stock" legend, the $500,000 suitcase, specific bribe amounts) are presented as disputed. Visuals: public domain archives (Library of Congress, NYPL, Wikimedia Commons) and Pexels stock footage. Some scenes are illustrated reconstructions, not historical footage. MUSIC "Crypto", "Long Note Four", "Hitman", "Investigations", "Heartbreaking", "Unanswered Questions" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... #History #WallStreet #GildedAge