Instead, the Treasury turned some of its dials, and the value of 6s plummeted. Duer defaulted on his debts, which led other people to sell what they had and sparked America's first financial panic. Creditors chased Duer down. Literally: A mob formed and pursued him down the streets of New York, probably about to tear him apart when they discovered he didn't carry all the money he owed them in his pockets. Then the sheriff arrived to save Duer from the mob ... by arresting him, because he owed money to the government too.
Duer's new home was Manhattan's New Gaol, a prison for debtors. He died there seven years later. Even his prison sentence didn't put an end to the mobs, who'd still show up at the jail's walls while he was in there and try to get in. One creditor did manage to get paid. A man named Pierre de Poyster showed up to the jail with pistols and demanded that Duer pay him or the two would duel to the death. The debt was settled, fiscally not ballistically, because "the Duer duel" was too much of a tongue twister for anyone to deal with.
Meanwhile, everyone else realized this kind of wild speculation could spell even more disaster in the future. Right after the panic of 1792, men of finance met to form a new organization that would control trading and so prevent the most dangerous kind of speculation from ever happening. They named it the New York Stock Exchange.
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