This is the story of John Jacob Astor, the fur trader, tea importer, shipping magnate, financier and landlord. The German peasant boy who became the richest man in the New World, was born in 1763. When he was sixteen, John left the village of Waldorf, Germany, to seek his fortune in America. He spent four years as a laborer in London, to earn the necessary passage money, and sailed in 1783 and months later reached New York City, full of confidence and ambitious spirit - but with no money.