Analysis: French Involvement In The California Gold Rush

French Involvement in the California Gold Rush
On January twenty-fourth, of 1848, James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill, in California. However, it was Sam Brannan, who sparked the gold rush, announcing Marshall’s find to the public of San Francisco. In February of that same year, the United States defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War after two long years at war. The pact, which ended the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, decreed that the United States would receive the California Territory as well as all of Nevada, and Utah. Fortunately for the residents of these territories, the treaty allowed residents to become United States citizens. Fortunately for the United States, the Mexicans failed to find Gold prior to the California …show more content…
Fortunately for France, there was a way to fund these ventures; companies. French investors began pooling capital to fund large scale ventures. These investors would accept both small and large scale investments, allowing the poor and working class to enjoy dividends from the profits. These companies often offered transportation to California for significant investors, such as those who committed one thousand francs to the Stock of the Company. These companies would then shelter and support these investors in California, in return for a percentage of the gold they mined. It seemed like a gift, a way to ease the fears of the Republic’s inability to restart the economy, a solution to the cries from the lower class for work, and a readily available source of investments for upper class businessmen. On February fifteenth, 1849, the first lucky group of fifty immigrants left for San Francisco on La Meuse. These immigrants were fortunate in avoiding the difficulties of passing through the strait of magellan, the fastest water-route from the Atlantic into the Pacific at the time. Despite their uneventful travels, their voyage took seven months, arriving in San Francisco on September 14th, 1849. It would appear the french would almost miss the Gold Rush, fortunately, the companies had planned past the allure of gold. Any company wishing to head out to California knew of the bull market for goods. In the later months of 1848, Jacques Moerenhout, the French Consul stationed at Monterey, reported on the state of affairs in California by visiting the gold fields. Moerenhout, seeing that the miners produced nothing which they needed, wrote to the French of the potential markets for food, clothes, boots, mining equipment, alcohol, and other luxury items. Companies heeded Moerenhout’s advice, bringing goods to trade such as Champagne, Bordeaux, and

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Analysis: French Involvement In The California Gold Rush

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