Money In New Amsterdam |
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And the money called Wampum came from the sea. First, it would be a type of clam or whelk shell available only on the shores of Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound. These shells would be made into small white and purple beads sewn into a string. A six-foot belt could hold up to seven thousand beads. The entire combination of belt with beads generated the worth, as individual beads held little value. The arrival of the Dutch only augmented Wampum’s use and maintained its monetary value, as European tools improved the ability to cut and string high quality shells. In New Amsterdam on the lower southern tip of Manhattan, which would soon build a wall for defense, on a street that would one day be called "Wall Street" and later house the New York Stock Exchange, Peter Stuyvesant issued perhaps the earliest New World money policy. "All Wampum used as money [shall] henceforth be strung upon a wire as hitherto it has usually been done." Perhaps seeing the shortsightedness of a money policy based on beads, Stuyvesant did make an urgent plea to Holland to send more coinage. In the meantime, inflation and currency in the forms of beads, shells, or coins did not seem to worry these early settlers. In the waters far away from lower New Amsterdam a sea of change was covering the European’s political landscape. Holland and Britain were at odds in a fragile political balance, both being small countries with strong navies vying for world dominance. In the New World, there were many that thought the British, who held the lands from South Carolina up to New England, held real claims from previous expeditions to New Amsterdam as well. Using the sandbar from Sandy Hook to Coney Island to cloak their militaristic goals, the British under Colonel Nicholls landed close to Sheepshead Bay in Gravesend Bay to take over New Amsterdam. As the sandbar offered little reason for boats to sail that way either from or to Europe with supplies or fishing expeditions to the ocean, the British militia landed undetected and sent a conquering force overland through mostly uninhabited and wild Brooklyn. Gravesend had free access to its waters and in 1643 acquired the first European settlers in the area of what is now called southern Brooklyn. Gravesend Bay is the place where Colonel Richard Nicolls with four British frigates landed on August 26, 1664, and sent an advance party of 450 militia to seize Brueckelen’s ferry and cross into New Amsterdam. On September 8, 1664, without a shot fired in Manhattan, the British replaced the West India Company flag with their own and changed the city’s name to New York. Nicholls was a likeable enough conqueror. The early British strategy for their New York was one of kindness. Keep the workers happy and the King's coffers would echo with the sounds of accumulated coin and currency. One year later he instituted the first racetrack on North American soil on ground that would one day be called Hempstead. In the furthest history concerning the era of the New World, we find seeds of off-track betting, and the sport of Kings, when a King ruled the day. Far away, Holland and England would go to war. In June 1667 a Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames, not only burning three of the British fleet in their home waters, but towing away the "Royal Charles," which was the pride of the British Navy. Charles II, older brother of James the Duke of York, sued for peace. But New Amsterdam was not returned, and the city would have the name "New York" to face the ages. next: Chapter 4: |
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New York Around 1600 and Brooklyn Names |
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Copyright © 2003 Ira Leitner