ABSTRACT
Speculation in public lands of the United States reached three peaks: in 1818–1819,1836, and 1855–1856, as is shown in the accompanying chart. Until the era of big business, large capitalization, and million-share companies, the favorite medium of speculation was land, whether corner lots in existing or prospective towns and cities or wild lands on the frontier. Numerous agencies sprang up to enable eastern investors to make entries of public lands. Prior to 1860 free lands constituted the ultimate demand of the West, but this goal could not be achieved until southern opposition was stilled by secession. In 1854, Congress graduated the price of land in proportion to the length of time it had been on the market. Wisconsin and Missouri lands were purchased in large amounts, but it was Iowa and Illinois prairie lands which the speculators preferred. In the southern public-land states large-scale buying was very noticeable in the thirties, particularly in Alabama and Mississippi.
