Read about how Scottish Americans bought America.

Scots are known as some of the most careful canny buyers in the world so much so that people think it is part of our Scottish culture to be mean with money. We make fun of ourselves continually calling it meanness but those who have ever studied the annual reports of the UK Charities Commission will know that on a basis of money donated that Scotland gives more to Charity per head of population than any other part of the UK. Just don't let anyone else find that out.

The most prosperous bank in the UK is the Royal Bank of Scotland no longer directly associated with the UK Royal Family. However it is public knowledge that the British Queen does bank with one of its constituent banks. For that matter so does the King of Soccer David Beckham and his wife!

You will also find that most of the large financial groups if not based in Scotland will have important offices in Scotland particularly Edinburgh. Lets face it anyone who wants to attract financially capable staff needs to have an office in Scotland.

Could this be the reason why two people of Scottish American descent were chosen by President Jefferson to handle perhaps one of the most important financial land transactions that America ever entered into? If not the most important real estate deal in USA history it was almost certainly the largest.

One of the people sent by Jefferson was Robert Livingston a descendant of Lord Livingston who had served Guardian to the young Mary Queen of Scots after she was born 1542 so he clearly had a strong Scottish culture in his family background.He was also one of the five people who drafted the US Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Roger Sherman.

Some people have pointed to the very strong resemblance of the American Independence Declaration to the Scottish cultural equivalent the Declaration of Arbroath drawn up in 1320 claiming independence from the English conquerors. Livingston was also the person who administrated the oath of office to the new President no-one could doubt his importance in the establishment of the USA and a strong Scottish American whilst maintaining his Scottish Culture.

Together with fellow Scottish American James Munro he was sent by Jefferson to purchase 828,000 square miles of land from France. This included what are now the states of Louisiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Nebraska and most of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana.

Considering the total price paid was only $15 million these two Scottish Americans maximising their inherited Scottish culture background doubled the size of America at a cost of less than 3 cents an acre.

These Scottish Americans partly because of their Scottish culture knew the value of land and were willing to invest in it.We have established a special website specially for Scottish Americans and others interested in their Scottish cultural connection on ScottishJerk.com If you would like to develop your own Scottish culture while investing in Scottish land at little cost check out this unique gift idea for another amazing bargain.