A Dutchman named Peter Minuit traded the island of Manhattan on which his compatriots had been already establishing themselves, for a more than modest material compensation: knives, beads, blankets and rum, worth a total of 24 dollars today. At current prices, this money won’t fetch much too in the United States: one can buy a bottle of cheap whiskey, socks, an ashtray, soap, a pound of sausage, pull-ups and a movie ticket. Not quite a fortune, is it? Yet, if one feels sorry for the deceived Indians, they too will be disappointed – it turned out later that it were buyers to be screwed. For the Dutch bought the island from the wrong Indians. The wrong people rowed there for hunting and wouldn’t refuse a free gift. And the real owners of the land then very resentful.