 These contracts amounted to several millions of dollars.After the American Civil War ended, the eight Seligman brothers decided to go into the banking business and a year later, Jesse Seligman went to Frankfurt, Hesse-Nassau, to open a bank, where they were the first American banking firm to sell United States Government bonds in Europe.The firm became fiscal agent for the conversion of existing war bonds to new ones and acted for years as fiscal agents for the Department of State and Department of the Navy.