High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The trader post scandal involved Secretary of War William W. Belknap who received quarterly kickback payments derived from an illicit Fort Sill tradership contract between Caleb P. Marsh and sutler John S. Evans. In 1870, Sec. Belknap lobbied Congress, and on July 15 of that year was granted the sole power to appoint and license sutlers with ownership rights to highly lucrative "traderships" at U.S. military forts on the Western frontier. The power to appoint traderships by the Commanding General of the Army, at that time William T. Sherman, was repealed. Having been granted the sole power to appoint traderships, Sec. Belknap further empowered those traderships with a virtual monopoly. Soldiers stationed at forts with Belknap appointed sutlers could only buy supplies through the authorized tradership. These monopoly traderships were considered to be excellent investments, and were highly prized. Soldiers on the Western frontier, who were thus forced to buy supplies at higher than market prices, were left destitute as a result. Данное издание представляет собой компиляцию сведений, находящихся в свободном доступе в среде Интернет в целом, и в информационном сетевом ресурсе "Википедия" в частности. Собранная по частотным запросам указанной тематики, данная компиляция построена по принципу подбора близких информационных ссылок, не имеет самостоятельного сюжета, не содержит никаких аналитических материалов, выводов, оценок морального, этического, политического, религиозного и мировоззренческого характера в отношении главной тематики, представляя собой исключительно фактологический материал.