Men of Wealth (1944) - Ludwig von Mises Institute

DYNASTIC FORTUNES 379
others include whole towns and valuable timber and mineral rights.
But they are not characteristic of the existing economic system
and under the impact of income and inheritance taxes are being
very seriously reduced and in some cases broken up.
in
DYNASTIC FORTUNES
The dream of the rich man, particularly the parvenu of other
days, as soon as he looks about him and surveys his glory, is to
perpetuate it in a dynasty. This was not so difficult in the feudal
era when wealth rested upon the indestructible land and men could
entail their fortunes through the practice of primogeniture. But
when the laws against entails were passed, the days of the dynast
became somewhat more difficult. Nevertheless, aristocratic families
in England and Germany and Spain and other Continental countries
have found ways of transmitting their wealth from one generation
to another with a good deal of success.
But in America, where the land has got pretty generally distributed,
where fortunes are invested rather in industrial and
commercial enterprises, the fear of the dynast has been much
diluted. One of the oldest fortunes is that of John Jacob Astor. Its
founder died in 1825, leaving $25,000,000. When his son died in
1890 there were a hundred millions to divide. This went to two
sons—$50,000,000 to each. It grew in their hands. One left $150,-
000,000, the other $75,000,000. The owner of the $150,000,000
took himself off to England where whatever of dynastic energy is
left is a rash upon England's limbs, not ours. The brother with
the $75,000,000 died in America leaving his fortune among numerous
heirs. The bulk of the American Astor fortune is in the hands
of William Vincent Astor—$87,000,000. There are a few stray
millions scattered about, but it is far under the $250,000,000 it was
twenty years ago. And it continues to wane under certain new