The book tells the story of Ivar Kreuger, a Swedish financier who rose to prominence in the 1920s by creating a matchstick monopoly and innovating financial products. However, his success was marred by fraudulent practices, including shell companies, fudged accounting, and forgery. When his empire collapsed in 1932, millions went bankrupt, leading to significant regulatory changes in the securities markets. Frank Partnoy's narrative forces a re-evaluation of the wisdom of crowds, the invisible hand, and the free market, drawing parallels with modern financial crises.
In 'The Big Rich', Bryan Burrough chronicles the rise and fall of one of the great economic and political powerhouses of the twentieth century—Texas oil. The book focuses on the epic sagas of the industry's Big Four: Roy Cullen, H.L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson. These men, from modest backgrounds, became patriarchs of the wealthiest oil families in Texas, influencing American politics, economy, and culture. Their stories include rags-to-riches tales, notorious scandals, high-stakes political influence, and eventual family feuds, scandals, and bankruptcies that marked the end of their era by the late 1980s.
The name of Nobel usually calls to mind Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, and the internationally prestigious prizes that bear his name. But Alfred was only one member of a creative and innovative family who built an industrial empire in prerevolutionary Russia. The saga begins with an emigre from Sweden, Immanuel Nobel, who was an architect, a pioneer producer of steam engines, and a maker of weapons.
Immanuel's sons included Alfred; Robert, who directed the family's activities in the Caspian oil fields; and Ludwig, an engineering genius and manufacturing magnate whose boundless energy and fierce determination created the Russian petroleum industry.
Ludwig's son Emanuel showed similar mettle, shrewdly bargaining with the Rothschilds for control of the Russian markets and competing head-on with Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell for lucrative world markets.
Perhaps no family in history has played so decisive a role in building an industrial empire in an underdeveloped but resource-rich nation. Yet the achievements of the Nobel family have been largely forgotten. When the Bolsheviks came to power, Emmanuel had to flee the country disguised as a peasant.
The Nobel empire with its 50,000 workers lay in ruins. An empire which had taken eighty years to design and build, was nearly destroyed, bringing a sudden and bitter end to one of the most remarkable industrial odysseys in world history.
This episode is what I learned from reading The Russian Rockefellers: The Saga of the Nobel Family and the Russian Oil Industry by Robert Tolf.
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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth
Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast
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