Jay Gould and Jim Fisk made their fortunes speculating on railroad stocks. In September 1869, they began buying up all of the available gold on the market with the hope of cornering the market in gold.

In order to succeed, they needed the cooperation of the U.S. government. Gould and Fisk, therefore, had to convince some government officials not to sell gold on the market. They met with Grant and tried to convince him that it was in the US interest not to sell gold, he listened and said nothing. Thus they were ablespread a rumor that President Grant also agreed that the government should stop selling gold. As a result, gold prices soared to $162 an ounce. When it became clear that Grant was going to order the sale of gold they tried

When, with the approval of President Grant, Secretary of the Treasury George Boutwell ordered the sale of $4,000,000 of gold, the price of gold collapsed, and so did the Gould–Fisk scheme. However, all of the legitimate brokers collapsed as well.