How Scots really bought America.

Worldwide wherever you go you will hear that it is part of the Scottish Culture that makes Scottish people are some of the most canny buyers. As Scots we even go so far as to promote the idea that we are mean with money but anyone looking at official Charity statistics see we give far more than our English neighbours. And we are keeping that a secret so don’t tell anyone else.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is the most prosperous banks in the UK although it is no longer owned by the Scottish royal family. However it is public knowledge that the British Queen does bank with one of its constituent banks. For that matter so does the King of Soccer David Beckham and his wife!

You will also find that most of the large financial groups if not based in Scotland will have important offices in Scotland particularly Edinburgh. They want to capitalize on the money handling and investment skills of the Scottish people.

Could this be the reason why two people of Scottish American descent were chosen by President Jefferson to handle perhaps one of the most important financial land transactions that America ever entered into? If not the most important real estate deal in USA history it was almost certainly the largest.

One of the people sent by Jefferson was Robert Livingston a descendant of Lord Livingston who had served Guardian to the young Mary Queen of Scots after she was born 1542 so he clearly had a strong Scottish culture in his family background.He was also one of the five people who drafted the US Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Roger Sherman.

Some people have pointed to the very strong resemblance of the American Independence Declaration to the Scottish cultural equivalent the Declaration of Arbroath drawn up in 1320 claiming independence from the English conquerors. Although Livingston was not one of the original people to publicly sign that Declaration of Independence due to other business commitments back in New York he was the person who administrated the oath of allegiance to the new president so he was definitely a Scottish American with a strong Scottish culture with a foot in both camps.

Livingston was sent By President Jefferson with another Scottish American James Munro to France to negotiate the purchase of over 828,000 square miles of land. This included what are now the states of Louisiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Nebraska and most of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana.

Considering the total price paid was only $15 million these two Scottish Americans maximising their inherited Scottish culture background doubled the size of America at a cost of less than 3 cents an acre.

These Scottish Americans partly because of their Scottish culture knew the value of land and were willing to invest in it.We have established a special website specially for Scottish Americans and others interested in their Scottish cultural connection on ScottishJerk.com If you thought these Scots buying so much land from the French was a bargain check out our Scottish land deal with this unique gift idea but very limited offer.