Social preeminence in large cities rested almost entirely upon the ownership of land.

The Astors, the Goelets, the Rhinelanders, the Beekmans, the Brevoorts, and practically all the mighty families that ruled the old Knickerbocker aristocracy in New York were huge land proprietors.

Their fortunes thus had precisely the same foundation as that of the Prussian Junkers today.

But their accumulations compared only faintly with the fortunes that are commonplace now.

How many "millionaires" there were fifty years ago we do not precisely know.