hapter 91: The Great Depression (Part Ten)
Translator: Etern, Kim_Guo
The wealth of Armand Hammer, the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Co., was second only to Rockefeller. In 1931 though, he had not yet entered the oil business and was just a western capitalist with less than ten million dollars.
However, in China and Russia, he was a well-know “Red Capitalist1“. He was the first western entrepreneur to work with the Soviet Union after the October Revolution and Lenin addressed him as “Comrade Hammer”. He was also the first western entrepreneur to visit China by private plane, for which Deng Xiaoping had complimented as “Brave”. But the main reason that attracted Huang Xuan was Mr. Hammer’s entrepreneural spirit.
Many Chinese thought it was after the East Europe shakeup and the disintegration of the Soviet Union that Russia was leading the world in import and export profits. They are wrong though, as they were making the most profits the year the Soviet Union was formed, and the first to figure that out was Hammer.
In early August of 1921, Hammer joined a delegation going to the Ural region to do an inspection. The situation that he saw when they arrived confused him. On one hand, the region was endowed with treasures and resources such as platinum, diamonds and fur. On the other hand, there was severe famine, people starving to death everywhere and the basic necessities were in severe short supply. So, Hammer asked the Soviet delegation leader: “Why don’t you export these things for food?”
“Impossible, Europe just removed their sanctions again us. It will take too long to export these things and then import food. In addition to that, it would take at least one million bushels of grain to free the Ural region from the famine.”
That year America had had a good harvest and the price of grains had dropped to one dollar a bushel. So Hammer suggested: “I have one million dollars of capital, I can quickly buy one million bushels of wheat with that. After the wheat is shipped to Saint Petersburg, one million dollars worth of fur and other goods can be shipped back to America.” Hammer’s idea traveled quickly to Moscow, Lenin personally telegraphed to approve the deal and invited Hammer to come to Moscow soon. In the office, Lenin welcomed Hammer and kindly conversed with him in English. When Lenin represented the Soviet government to express their thanks, the great Comrade Lenin was so excited that he shed tears. Afterward, Lenin encouraged Hammer to invest and build factories. He also allowed Hammer to build asbestos mines in Siberia, which would make him the first foreigner to have mining rights in the Soviet Union. This marked the beginnings of trade between America and the Soviet Union. Hammer formed the American United Company, approached more than 30 companies and seemed to have become the agent for Soviet trade in America.
Of course, Sloan knew about Hammer, in 1931 Hammer was quite well known in New York. This was due to the fact that Hammer was organizing a Soviet art auction in New York and almost all of the magnates had been invited. He wrinkled his brow and asked: “Mr. Huang, are you interested in investing in art too?” Huang Xuan was already used to telling these foreigners that his surname was Huang, and not Xuan.
“A little.” Huang Xuan smiled and leaned back on the sofa, “At the present, it seems that art has more potential than industrial investment.”
Sloan laughed and nodded his head. “It does indeed, let’s go tomorrow then. I’m sure Mr. Hammer will be more than willing to meet a generous investor.”
“OK.” Huang Xuan gestured and turned around to Steve. “Are you interested in looking at another design?”
“Sure.” Steve couldn’t wait. Huang Xuan smiled and stood up. Hans had divided the designs into two piles, the smaller one had the designs for the Ford V8. Compared with the Citroen TA, the V8 could only be considered as mediocre. Although the V8 was designed later, it was much cheaper than the TA. This was because the V8 was like the other Ford vehicles and focused on production efficiency rather than new technology. But no matter what, this was an advanced car, it didn’t matter that it cost over $300,000 USD, Ford was please with it.
Huang Xuan didn’t intend to help Ford or GM grow their business. Although he only had 6 days left here, he still wanted more assurances, so he needed to pay close attention to the people and events close to him.
This time the inspection was much faster.
This time the technicians paid more attention to the completeness rather than the authenticity of the designs. Three hours later, GM finished the work first, then Ford.
The three parties happily got up and shook hands. “Shall we go to the bank?” Sloan said.
Huang Xuan told Hans to take care of the designs and then led the way.
They came to Chase Bank, which was often called the family bank of Rockefeller, because Rockefeller owned or at least controlled this bank. It was the biggest and best “wholesale” bank. It gave loans to big companies and banks across America. Being the bank of banks, it offered funds for foreign trades of the country. It wasn’t interested in retail or international business, which was one the reasons Huang Xuan had chosen it.
In the lobby, the three of them drew a lot of attention. Joseph, the manager, quickly walked towards them and took them to the VIP room.
“Joseph, please open an account for Mr. Huang,” Sloan said.
Seeing that the president of GM himself personally introduce this young man, Joseph held back the arrogance that most Caucasians have. He carefully took Huang Xuan’s ID card and quickly completed the formalities. When he came back, it was with John Rockefeller Jr. leading the way.
The young Rockefeller was handsome and charming. His eyes were sparkling. His chin wasn’t as fat as it would be in 50 years. He looked healthy, ambitious and energetic. When Huang Xuan shook hands with him, the enthusiasm that Rockefeller showed reminded him of the modern age, where the Americans treated the Chinese with much more sincerity.
Rockefeller spoke a few words with each of them, but neither of the two companies would tell him why they decided to pay this Asian $100,000 USD.
Of course, Rockefeller wouldn’t directly ask this question, he gave Huang Xuan his business card and left, leaving the rest of the matters to Joseph. This was just a plain business card, unlike the modern age where the people who thought they were famous used precious materials to print a simple name. The card in Huang Xuan’s hand was simple a card, with a simple name, using simple materials. Neither the card nor the contents seemed to fit with Rockefeller’s status.
“Mr. Huang Xuan, I hope we still have opportunities to cooperate in the future.” Sloan said. Whenever Sloan was around, Steve appeared to be much more reserved.
“Of course there will be.” Huang Xuan smiled like a happy mouse that had drank some juice, and took the deposit receipt from Joseph’s hands.
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