Louisiana Purchase

Activity 1: Comparative Costs: Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson’s Library, and
Presidential Salaries
A. The Louisiana Purchase
During the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the United States succeeded in purchasing
from France a large body of land known as the Louisiana Territory. The purchase was
called the Louisiana Purchase.
On April 30, 1803, Robert Livingston, ambassador to France, and James Monroe, special
envoy, concluded a treaty in Paris in which the United States purchased from France the
whole of the Louisiana territory for $15,000,000.

Figure 1. The territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.
The territory (see Figure 1), approximately 800,000 square miles, included the
Mississippi River Valley and most of the present-day Midwest, almost doubled the size
of what was then the United States.

1. One acre is 43,560 square feet or 4,840 square yards. There are exactly 640 acres in a
square mile.

a. How many acres were purchased?
b. What was the cost per acre?

2. Today, an acre of land can cost anywhere from $100 to $1,000,000. Assuming $500
per acre as a very low price, how much would the Louisiana Purchase have cost at this
rate?