In 1867 the Russian Empire sold Alaska to the United States. How much did the buyers pay, in US dollars of the time?
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Answer
About 7.2 million USD
That works out at roughly two cents an acre. Critics still nicknamed the deal Seward's Folly, after the Secretary of State who negotiated it.
How to estimate it
A treaty price is a historical fact, but a comparison gets close. In 1803 the United States paid 15 million dollars for Louisiana, 2.1 million square kilometres. Alaska covers 1.7 million, so the same rate gives 15 × 1.7 / 2.1 = 12 million. Frozen, remote land deserved a discount of perhaps 40 percent: about 7 million. The actual price was 7.2 million US dollars.
Source: US National Archives; US Library of Congress
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