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How the Astors Lost $100 Billion Without a Scandal to Blame

Fortune's Grave

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At his death in 1848, John Jacob Astor was the richest man in America, his fortune equal to nearly one percent of the entire U.S. economy, well over a hundred billion dollars in today's money. Three generations later, the last of the American Astors settled his claim to what was left for a quarter of a million dollars. No crash. No scandal. No swindle. This is the story of the greatest fortune America ever produced, and how a family lost it so quietly that almost nobody noticed.

Chapters:
0:00 No Astor on the List
0:50 The Richest Man in America
2:07 A German Boy and the Fur Trade
5:12 The Land That Built the Fortune
9:45 Mrs. Astor and the Ballroom
12:17 Ward McAllister and "the 400"
13:56 The Vanderbilts Force Their Way In
15:32 The Waldorf Feud and the Flight to England
17:43 The Mansions Come Down
19:38 The Titanic and the Selling-Off
22:41 The $250,000 Settlement
24:44 Why the Fortune Fell Apart
27:40 The Branch That Kept Theirs
32:53 The Final Irony

Sources: Astor family biographies, Ward McAllister's own account of "the 400," New York Times archival reporting, probate records. Named sources only.

Fortune's Grave: documented wealth, dated figures, named sources, past events. Not financial advice.

20 Comments

@Billionairestory777 2 months ago

Building a fortune is extraordinary. Keeping it alive for generations is even harder.

@WendiWonderly 2 months ago

Who decides who is accepted and who isn’t? The rest of us got over that in middle school

@JonathanIkeda-u6c 2 months ago

Mansions are not an investment but a liability. The owner is poorer than before because he has to pay forever for property taxes, servants expense, repair costs, food bills, lawning costs and others. Eventually, they abandoned their mansions.

@ShammaNayak 2 months ago

Y is this voice so robotic

@benpitre5537 2 months ago

They didn't lose their wealth they spent it.

@HughJoPnin 2 months ago

16:20 if he could see London now, lol

@Gregory-u8z1q 2 months ago

Ecclesiastes: 18-22. Not the first time this happened or the last. Nice video.

@amanitamuscaria5863 2 months ago

20:14 Paper hands ruin dynasties.

@charlesacaranci9039 1 month ago

That is why they write books with the title the rise and fall of fill in the blank

@athenaguan3809 2 months ago

Not being mentioned Astor sold opium to China. And use “ trade “ it’s the same cover up you are a trader or you are a drug dealer/ trafficker. The wealthy of this family it’s full hands a blood and those shitty social list. What a shameful start !

@justinbaumer8920 2 months ago

Watched a few of these. Knew the family names growing up in 80s n 90s. The silly saying of 3 generations. Funny how pre empire state building days would have shown you a nyc with mansions

@alonsolaw8380 2 months ago

Debauchery 😢😢😢😢😢😢

@alonsolaw8380 2 months ago

They were selling fentanayl in Kensington Philadelphia

@charlesacaranci9039 1 month ago

The real wealth is in the economic activity do the right kind of economic activity you gain wealth don’t do it and you spend your wealth

@stevencote7118 2 months ago

I live in Newport Rhode Island to let you know that this video is wrong about theirs no trace of the ASTORS CUZ THE ASTORS MANSION IS STILL IN NEWPORT that they give GUIDES TOURS for $34 for a adult it’s one of the most awesome Amazing Gilded Homes on Planet Earth by the Atlantic Ocean Coastline! Then theirs the 2 MILE OCEAN CLIFF WALKS BY THE VANDERBILT MANSION CALLED THE BREAKERS which is a 68 room Summer Home on the Atlantic Ocean Coastline that still today has guided tours for $34 it’s quite impressive cuz one of it’s incredible rooms came from A Actual Castle from France with 24 caret gold leaf accent

@Kel-d7v 2 months ago

The higher you fly, the farther down you gotta fall.
It's quite a drop from the top, now isn't it 😆

@MichaelAnthonyParker 2 months ago

This is not intended to be a history of the greatest part of America. It is intended to insult those who left England for a freedom they would never have in England. It was intended to free themselves from a Monarchy and Theocracy designed to keep the richest people rich forever. Not so in America. America had the freedom to choose a way of life and no longer be peasants. Merit and hard work provided whatever means you had to be rich or be free to use your money for the poor. The motives couldn’t have been more obvious. So the Astor’s who used America to get rich and then transfer that wealth back to their homeland where the state would protect them are made the heroes of such an evil system. The Astor’s in America had the most freedom to do whatever they wanted to do. In their case most were lazy and lived upon the wealth of their ancestors until it dried up. But that is a single story of millions who lived to create wealth for the poor. These stories have been told and the story of these saints have been told. You only need to want to know about these truly magnificent Americans.

@oh-hithere9449 2 months ago

This is so hard to listen to, being read by AI

@siciuperpesiciu1945 2 months ago

What exactly is the difference between these drug dealers and Pablo Escobar? They got away with it thats what. Is it any wonder the Chinese are getting revenge for the humiliation they suffered at the hands of these criminals and others like them by shipping fentanyl precursors to the cartels these days? That's why the Chinese are doing it. Crime is crime.