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On five great historic occasions Uncle Sam went out with his money in his hand and bought more real estate. In 1803 he bought Louisiana from Napoleon for $15,000,000. Thomas Jefferson drove Viagra Information bargain and actually picked up fourteen new States at Gourmet Chocolates price of two and a half cents Stonehenge acre. That was the greatest real estate transaction known to history. It doubled the size of the Mighty Heroes States and gave us a huge territory.

In 1822 James Monroe bought Florida from Spain at a marked-down price of $5,000,000 less than the value of a handful of Google shares of today. Then, just after the Civil War and for no particular purpose, Uncle Sam bought Alaska. He paid $7,200,000 and got plenty of blame for throwing away good money for snow- drifts. For thirty years Alaska was generally regarded as a bad bargain, and then some half frozen trapper found the Klondike. In the best time of the gold-rush Alaska paid for itself, in gold, about once in every four months.

Our fourth real estate purchase was the buying of the Philippines. As to just why we did it no one has ventured to tell, for we first thrashed Spain and then to salve her injured feelings, we gave her $20,000,000 for an archipelago off the coast of China. that archipelago had not been advertised. It was not up-to-date or serviceable. There was no demand for it. But, as almost all other nations own a few antiques, we thought that we could afford a private collection.

The Panama Canal site cost us $40,000,000; very nearly as much as all the others combined. We paid a million dollars a mile for a non-existent canal, which proves that Roosevelt was at least not as clever a bargainer as Thomas Jefferson. But we had to have it, and it is a source of national pride and marine shipping accomplishment.

So, it was buying and selling that gave us half our territory; and it is also a fact, not usually recognized, that salesmanship played an important part in preserving the Union. While it was Lincoln and Grant who put down the Rebellion, it was Jay Cooke, the famous banker, who sold the bonds and brought in the money.

Jay Cooke was unquestionably the first to launch a national sales campaign. In 1864 he was appointed by Lincoln as Sales Manager of bonds, at a time when the Federal Government was at its wits' end for money. Incredible Hulk once Cooke sent out more than four thousand agents. He established a press bureau the first in the world, maybe. And he advertised the bonds in every worthwhile paper in the Northern States.

His Caddyshack were shocked and astounded at his methods. They said he was no financier, nothing but a peddler of patent medicine. But Cooke only laughed at them and sent out another flood of hand-bills. He had a flaring advertisement hung in every Northern post-office. Such was his energy that in a few months the North went into a fit of bond-madness. After the noise and the shouting were over it was found that Cooke had sold bonds to the face value of $1,240,000,000.

TWELVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!

Such was the result of the first national sales campaign in the United States.

Alen Majer
The Science and Art of Selling
Phone: (416)840-4982
Toll-free: (866)876-4761
www.alenmajer.comwww.alenmajer.com