Bits of Gold – Sutter Mill
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Bits of gold were discovered in Sutter Mill at first this discovery was kept as a secret by the mill owner. He feared that if people knew about the gold in the river miners would crowd this river and make it impossible for him to work he also didnt want his workers leaving in search of gold.Sam Brannan a journalist at the time heard about the gold in the river and spread the news by publishing it in his newspaper he saw a great opportunity in this by becoming a merchant. Soon people from all over the world came to California in search of gold.
During the gold rush merchants made a lot of money by selling tools that were useful to miners. Boarding houses, Sewing food services and laundry services theat were often ran by women made a large profit over this period of time.Miners also made money by searching for gold those who arrived earlier made a larger profit than those who didnt made a little money or ended up losing money for example on group of miners mining on the feather river found $3 million worth of gold in 210 price.
A businessman who had great success was Levi Strauss who sold the first denim overalls in San Francisco in 1853. Sam Brannon a newspaper journalist became a merchant when he heard about the gold he purchased every shovel, pick,and pan in California.In the next seventy days he sold $36,000in tools (About 950,000 in todays money).Miners were finding 30,000 to 50,000 dollars worth of gold everyday. Several towns sprung up and the California constitution was made even though the owner of the mine had no control of the number of miners other had a lot of power .The state began charing a 20 dollar tax to foreign miners.