Chapter 23- Nuggets and Nutz (1766)

Waking up later that day it was only about 4 pm John grabbed the paper on his desk. He immediately went over to his grandfather's study and knocked on the door with a plan already forming inside his head.

A brief "Enter" was heard from inside the room so John opened the door and walked in. Seeing his grandfather at his desk, he dragged a chair across from William and took his seat. 

"Good morning John," William says putting down his quill next to him he looks up and gives a small smile that could only ever be called fatherly.

"Grandpa, I have an Idea for us so rich that the idea of poverty will become anathema to us and future generations," John said in a confident, if not cocky tone of voice.

This shocked William as his eyes widened in shock, "Truly," he said the visible surprise transferring to his voice, "What kind of development could lead our family to higher wealth?"

John leaned in to develop a dramatic moment, "Gold." He let the word linger for a few seconds before he continued. "In the Carolina's, there are possible gold mines, there are 7 prominent mines along a belt between the two colonies."

William was now in a state of complete shock, 'gold, this is what the initial plan for the colonies was supposed to be. If we could buy the land of these mines we could be enormously wealthy.'

Seeing his grandpa deep in thought he started talking again, "There are three good spots in the northern state and four in the south. Most of the land is quite far from the coast so it will be cheap to buy if we do it quickly and quietly."

Seeming to snap out of his stupor slightly William looks back toward John, "How much gold do you think is in these seven mines?" he asks with bated breath.

"I think that in these locations there are around seven hundred and fifty thousand ounces. Which at current prices would be around twelve… million… pounds," he said pacing his words to build up suspense. Thinking on his memories he asks how much that would be worth in his old life, with only a small headache he gets a response. 'That is over two and a half billion pounds and in USD it would be somewhat over three billion dollars.'

As he is thinking this the two men sit in silence over what John has just revealed. To John it had his mind running, 'Each year during the Napoleonic wars the British navy received around ten million pounds a year, and adjusting for inflation the gold mines could cover the cost of the world's largest navy for two to three years.' 

To William this brought two things to his mind, One was how John had discovered this without anyone else knowing, this befuddled him but he was trying to stay in John's good graces so he wouldn't question his idea. He would find his most trusted men, Quakers who would never break a promise or contract on principle, and have them check the mines. He would as John has said in the past, trust but verify. 

The second thing though was the utter absurdity of being able to control that much mineral wealth and what one could accomplish with it. It was around ten percent of the total British debt, but this was the kind of thing that needed to be hidden. If they could keep this a secret then it would be a massive economic coup, with that much bullion the sky would be the limit. 

"Are you thinking the same thing as me," William said looking at John who had a very similar expression he just had.

"About how we should keep this secret," John replied followed by Williams nodding. "We should buy all the land and set up the mines but we can't be seen transporting large amounts of bullion we need a way to cover our tracks and hide the shipments."

"Yes," William replied, "but what could we grow that wouldn't raise suspicion." they both regained their contemplative looks, "It should be something heavy, able to be transported over long distances, most likely a crop as it wouldn't be strange for our family to invest in more agricultural production." 

Hearing this John can better understand how their family has made so much money in the past. Hearing his grandfather lay out his plans gives him a sense of pride in being part of his family.

"What we need though," he hears as his grandpa continues, "is a new crop. One not grown in Pennsylvania so as to not draw suspicion."

Then it hits John, "Nuts!." He exclaims out into the room, this startles William so seems to pull away after the outburst.

"What," he says.

"Nuts, we grow and sell peanuts, they are cheap, will grow well in the climate there, they are new but most importantly we can hide purified gold in the sacks." 

"But what will we do with the nuts," William says, "we can eat them but nobody would believe that we went through all that trouble to just grow nuts to eat a less-than-popular food," William said adopting a quizzical expression, almost knowing for a certainty that John has a solution for this problem.

As he predicted with almost perfect accuracy John begins to explain "There are many other ways to use peanuts, they can be made into a pate to eat, they are a fantastic animal feed but their best use is that you can extract an oil from them, much like olives."

He sees this catch his grandfather's attention as a trader William knows how much olive oil is imported for lamps, lanterns, and cooking when butter is not usable. "Could this oil be used to compete with imported oils?"

Knowing what his grandfather means he smiles, "Oh yes, plus it's very cheap to make and we can still add a tidy enough markup and it will still be less than half the price of imported olive oil."

"Alright, I'll send some men to check out the land discreetly and see if the owners would be willing to sell. If they are we need a plant build, preferably one farther from the city."

"I would actually recommend building it in Delaware and then moving the finished gold up to the estate where I will build a place to hold it."

"Fantastic idea," William says with the same proud smile that's all too familiar, "You can look through the land files for Delaware and pick out a good coastal spot."

That night was filled with planning and preparations for a new scheme, one that would help propel my family into wealth beyond our wildest immigration. 

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